Days of the Dead
by TheLoneWo1f
Summary: After the New Frontier was taken down, everything in Richmond seemed to be going well. But in this cruel world, good things usually don't last very long. Now a new menace has revealed itself and will push Clementine and the rest of the people of Richmond to limits they never would've imagined possible.
1. The dangers among us

A/N: First off, I want to give a very big thank you to BHBrowne for beta reading this first chapter of Days of the Dead. You've helped me so much and I couldn't have done this without you. Also please feel free to check out some of his work, they're definitely worth giving a read.

I wanted to say thank you for deciding to check out this new fanfic of mine. If some of you have read my previous story and have come here, welcome back! For those of you reading a fanfic from me for the first time, hello! I hope you enjoy this chapter that I've worked on and if you have any feedback, good or bad, please let me know and I'll do my best to fix them.

Now enough of me talking, you guys came here for the chapter, right? Right? Anyway, I hope you enjoy this new fanfic and if you want, feel free to give it a review to let me know what your thoughts are, as well as what can be improved. Now with all that out of the way, he is the first chapter of Days of the Dead.

 _Chapter 1_

 _The dangers among us_

 _Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed In one self place, for where we are is hell, And where hell is there must we ever be._

 _-Christopher Marlowe_

* * *

 _The McCarroll Ranch._

The place that held the only person Clementine cared about in this world. The one person who she didn't want to die.

 _I'm going to find you, AJ._

Clementine swore that after she left everyone at Richmond. Javi and the rest of his family were great people, well besides David, but Clementine had to leave them to get her little goofball back. After becoming separated from AJ because she injected him with vancomycin a while back, Clementine had always wanted to be reunited with him again.

 _Clem…_

AJ reached his tiny hands towards Clementine as he tried to get his guardian to come back to him. That cold and dark night, as well as the yelling from David and the red and pale skin of AJ's sick face, was burned into her memory.

 _Clem…_

Clementine shuddered as cold chills ran down her face in the same places those tears ran that terrible night. That was the first word AJ had ever spoken. Clementine never thought she'd ever see the day when he would finally say something. All AJ managed to do was cry, giggle, and never say a single damn word. Even though he got them into serious danger multiple times with all his screams and cries, he still made her happy. Clementine would do anything to hear his little giggle one more time.

Bushes quickly rustled behind Clementine and she turned her head around only to find the bushes perfectly still as well as a substantial amount of enormous oak trees and a path of dead walkers she had shot, stabbed, and killed along the broken road she followed for the last couple of minutes. Yellow and red leaves fell from the oak trees and littered the fractured road along with tall brown and yellow grass that seeped through the massive cracks of the charcoal gray road. A beautiful canvas of red and purple mixed together and painted the sky as the massive orange clouds flew gently under it.

In the distance, the sun slowly hid behind one of the many enormous orange clouds as it set. Clementine frowned as being outside when it was dark wasn't exactly what she wanted. As Clementine turned to face forward, the road stopped it's straight path and instead, curved to the right and vanished as it went behind the massive trees with yellow and red leaves gliding gently away from their branches. Beyond the curved road, a valley of green went far into the distance and was surrounded by even bigger oak trees. But a little bit beyond the curved road stood a small-scale structure.

That had to be where AJ was and Clementine felt it in her guts. But Clementine thought the ranch house would've been bigger. But then again, Clementine was here for AJ and that was it, and as long as her little goofball was there, she didn't care how small the ranch house was. "I'm coming for you AJ."

As Clementine continued to walk towards the small structure, an itchy sensation on her back bothered her and she reached behind her head to scratch it. But as she did, she came across something weird under her beige shirt covered by her rose red tailcoat blazer shrug. Clementine reached behind her head and down her beige shirt with her right hand until she came across what was like soft thin string. "What the hell?" Clementine pulled the unusual soft material from beneath her shirt and pulled it out. To Clementine's surprise, it was a thin piece of her natural brown hair.

Back when Clementine was at Richmond, she asked Javi to cut her hair. Clementine had felt like her hair got too big for comfort. Even though she liked the haircut Lee had given her a couple years back, she felt like she needed a new one. Clementine still hadn't stared at herself in a mirror yet to find out how it turned out and Javi's reaction to it only made her feel it was even more of a mistake to get it cut.

But then again, in this world who was going to judge Clementine for how her hair looked? All everyone cared about was surviving and that's it. Having short hair meant it wouldn't be grabbed and that's what Lee would've wanted, to keep her hair short. As Clementine got her hair cut by Javi, she told him she wasn't a very good mom to AJ at all.

 _It's not about good or not good. You kept him alive. You did your job._

Even though he was right, Clementine couldn't help but feel she didn't do as well as she could have. Someone else took care of AJ after he was taken away from her. Now AJ would probably think Clementine left him, even though she would never do that. Questions arose in Clementine's head ever since she found out AJ was still alive.

 _Will he remember me? Will he think David is his father? Has he said more words? Has he learned to walk?_

But all those questions disappeared as Clementine got to where the road ended it's straight path and curved to make another. A dirt path laid where the road would've continued going straight had it not curved. Wires connected to posts lined up the sides of the dirt path and led to the poorly sized McCarroll Ranch house. Clementine followed the wires that moved up and down as she got closer and closer to the ranch house.

But as Clementine got to the end of the dirt path that led towards the small structure, it seemed that it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. The small wooden white oak ranch house was extremely dilapidated and oddly quiet. Only the groans of nearby walkers echoed through the otherwise noiseless ranch. "AJ?" Clementine ran towards the run-down structure as she hoped to find her little goofball.

"Hello?! AJ are you there?!" A figure walked out of the wooden ranch house and it seemed like everything was alright. Until he slowly limped towards Clementine. The zombified man had bites and claws marked all over its face, torso, and legs. The man's right arm hanged by a thread as the majority of the arm was a shade of deep red. But on the walker's left arm was the red brand of the group Clementine knew all too well. The man's ripped red flannel shirt and ripped blue jeans crinkled as he went down the wooden stairs of the front porch and limped towards Clementine.

"What the hell happened?" The walker lunged its arms towards Clementine and she ducked and dodged the attack. Clementine quickly ran behind the walker and kicked the bicep of its leg. The walker fell quickly with a thud. As it tried to get up, Clementine, without hesitation, swung her survival knife towards the walker's head and punctured it. The walker quickly ceased to move and laid perfectly still. Dark red blood dripped off the knife as Clementine took it out of the back of the walker's head. The dark red liquid was wiped clean off the knife as Clementine wiped it on her pants.

Clementine gripped her survival knife hard with her right hand as she slowly went up the wooden stairs. The steps were fragile and it seemed that they could break at any moment. A hole in the middle of one of the wooden steps made Clementine place her right foot on the step above it as she continued up. The stairs creaked slightly as each step was taken as Clementine slowly walked up them with her knife in hand, ready for anybody who dared to attack her on the front porch.

A dead walker sat on a red rocking chair to Clementine's left as she finished getting up the wooden stairs. The walker sat perfectly still and didn't move a single muscle. Its guts were laid out on the floor and ripped to shreds as it escaped from a hole deep inside its stomach. Blood ran and covered the walker's entire body from its long neck, all the way to its massive boots. The familiar smell of metal captivated Clementine's nostrils as she got closer to the bloody red chair.

Clementine walked past the rocking chair and stared at it, only to find out the chair was actually a wooden rocking chair originally painted white, and it was completely coated with blood from the poor dead man, not from a red coat of paint. Clementine gasped as she walked away from the back of the wooden chair and stared at the dead walker who stared back with a bullet in its left eye and its jaw wide open. "Who could've done this?" Clementine analyzed the man and observed that on the man's neck was a slash that made her shudder as she stared at the blood that came out of the huge cut.

Clementine continued to analyze the man's body and got to the man's stomach. The poor man's guts were almost completely ripped out. As Clementine got to the floor where all the guts were ripped to shreds, it seemed to her that there were barely any of his guts left, like as if they had been taken. Clementine knew a person's guts were pretty big, especially since she had to cover herself in guts on more than one occasion. "What kind of sick fuck could do something like this?"

The thought of what Clementine came to the McCarroll Ranch for hit her like a bullet. "AJ!" Clementine ran towards the open door and entered the small white oak wooden ranch house. Rotting cadavers were littered all over the wooden floor and a strong metallic stench was throughout the small ranch house.

As Clementine walked deeper into the house, the floor beneath her crunched. Clementine put her head down to face the floor and found an abundance of small pieces of glass scattered across the wooden floor. Clementine gasped as she stared at all the windows around her, which were all completely broken, and let the little daylight left outside to make its way in and light the dark ranch house. "AJ?"

Clementine's boots crushed the glass as she continued to walk through the abandoned, low-roofed wooden house. Flies passed quickly by Clementine's face as they moved from dead body to dead body to feast on the rotting corpses laid around them. Clementine faced the dead cadavers and observed that they all died the exact same way. Their guts ripped out of their stomach and laid out in front of them, their torsos and trousers ripped, their necks slashed in the same exact spot on their neck, and a bullet hole made by a bullet that entered their left eyeballs. There must've been at least ten people killed in the very room. Some sat in broken chairs, some leaned against the wooden walls, one even hung out one of the broken windows. "AJ?!"

Clementine ran across the glass littered wooden floor and got to a wall at the end of the ranch house. Clementine faced the left side of the backend of the house and was shocked to find blue and green chalk lines spiraled against each other on one side of the old white oak wooden walls like colorful snakes. But something about them caught Clementine's eye.

The blue and green lines both continued down the wooden wall towards a door. Clementine followed the blue and green lines and ran her hand against the hard and cold wood. Clementine's left hand followed along with the chalk lines as they went up and down. Blue and green chalk got onto Clementine's fingertips as she ran her hand through both of the lines and disrupted their journey. Clementine stared at her newly colored fingertips as she got to the door the lines led to. She rubbed her fingers on her pants and wiped the blue and green off her hands. But as Clementine stared up from her pants and at the door, she tried to hold back a waterfall of tears.

On the door the word Clem was written in pink while the blue and green lines circled around it. Even though AJ did have pretty horrible handwriting, Clementine could still read what was written surprisingly. After all this time, Clementine never thought she would ever be with him again, especially after what she faced outside of the very room AJ was in. But here he was, safe and sound.

"AJ?!" Clementine called as she admired the work of art on the door. To Clementine's surprise, no-one answered her call. Clementine walked to the wooden door and turned the knob. The knob barely moved and Clementine couldn't open the door.

"Oh no, no this can't be." Clementine knocked on the door in a rhythmic fashion. "AJ? AJ?!" Still, no-one answered her calls. Clementine's knocking quickly turned into banging. As Clementine continued to call for him, she slowly thought that maybe she wouldn't be reunited with her little goofball after all.

Then it hit her.

Everyone had their throats slashed open, their clothes ripped, and their left eyes were blinded by bullets. AJ couldn't survive all that, especially with a target pretty much right there on the door. AJ having his throat slashed and a bullet being put into his left eye would absolutely end Clementine.

"AJ, please. Answer me." Clementine wiped her watering eyes with her right arm and waited for an answer as she backed away from the door. But still, no-one answered. Anger built up inside of Clementine. David took AJ away from her and it was all his fucking fault she lost him. If it wasn't for him, Clementine and AJ would've been together. Clementine bungled up her hands into fists and she gritted her teeth. "Nooo!" Clementine ran towards the wooden door full sprint and swung her boot towards the door. The door immediately busted open and wood flew from the door and went through the air. The pieces of wood landed on the wooden floor of the empty room with a thud and dust flew slowly through the air.

The only light that illuminated the dim room was of the sun and its light that shined through the windows that weren't broken like the ones outside were. Bodies weren't scattered across the floor and the metallic scent was nowhere in the air. But Clementine wasn't focused on how dim the room was or how there were no dead bodies scattered around. Instead, she was transfixed on something else. On one of the wooden walls was a message written in the same blue chalk used outside to lead her to the very room she was in now.

 _You're late Clementine, AJ's gone. I hope you like running. -D_

Fear and anger built up inside of her as she stared at the poorly written blue words. "Wait, what? Where the hell is AJ?!" Clementine searched around the room and threw around chairs and tables, but only came up with nothing. "AJ where are you?!" Clementine yelled at the top of her lungs in hopes of an answer.

"Hello?" A voice whispered from outside the room. Clementine tilted her head slightly to the right in confusion as she thought everyone was dead. Clementine walked out of the room slowly and searched the back end of the ranch house, but nobody was there.

"Hello?" The same voice whispered again. Clementine walked past the colorful lines on the wooden walls and got to the main room where multiple bodies laid. "Hello?" Clementine asked as she walked slowly past the bodies and started at them one by one.

One of the bodies put their hands up and Clementine pulled out her survival knife almost instantly. "No please." The man's whispers were soft and sounded like as if he was around eighty years old, even though he was around thirty years of age at max. Clementine sighed and slowly put her knife back in its holster. "Thank you." The bloody man slowly put his arms down and put his hands over his bloody stomach. For some reason, he wasn't cut in the neck like all the other bodies were. In fact, his neck was perfectly fine.

"What happened to you?" Clementine scanned the man's bloody body with her eyes as she stared at the small cut in his stomach and the blood on his lap. "He… He came…." The man pointed towards the open door and Clementine followed the man's shaking finger. "He came here?"

The man gulped slowly and nodded his head as it shook violently. "Where's AJ?" This was Clementine's only way to find out what happened to her little goofball and she needed to know where he was. "He took him." The man slowly blinked and started to put his head down. "No no stay with me, who took him?" Clementine shook the man vigorously and the man groaned in pain. "Just please let me die." The man sobbed and coughed up some blood.

"Not until you tell me who took AJ." The man called for the caretaker of AJ to get closer to him with his hand. Clementine held onto her survival knife with her right hand as she kneeled and leaned closer to the wounded man. The man put his bloody wrinkled lips close to her ears as he prepared to speak. "The.. Brotherhood... took AJ."

Clementine pulled away from the man quickly and stared at him. "The Brotherhood?" The man nodded and coughed blood that spat out of his mouth and onto his bloody stomach.

"They are the most ruthless group... I have ever seen. Their leader is like the… Devil, powerful and wicked. He's like hell… on Earth." The man voice got dry and he stopped as he gulped slowly once again. "He'll kill anybody in his way."

"Who is he?" Clementine felt butterflies fly around in her stomach. AJ had been taken by a group that killed anybody in their path, but why did they take AJ? What was their purpose? "His name is…" The man slowly lowered his head and stared at his guts. The man didn't move a muscle and Clementine got furious. "What's his goddamn name?!" The man didn't listen and just kept his head down.

Clementine grabbed the man and shook him as hard as she could. The man's head bobbed up and down as he was shaken. Eventually, Clementine stopped and stared at the man who still had his head down. "Where the hell is AJ?!" The man didn't answer and instead, Clementine got an answer she didn't expect.

In the distance, over all the groaning of the nearby walkers, a single and powerful howl made the walkers and their groans become weak and insignificant. The howl died and everything went silent. Clementine ran towards a broken window and searched the area outside for any sign of what made those howls.

The groans and moans of the walkers quickly dispersed as yet another howl echoed through the air for a second time. Clementine scanned the area but couldn't find anything other than tall grass and massive oak trees. Clementine ran towards the front porch and flies quickly passed by Clementine's face as her quick movements frightened them as they were surrounding the dead bodies around the room. Clementine burst out of the ranch house and passed the dead walker who sat on the bloody rocking chair perfectly still as she ran down the small set of stairs on the front porch.

Clementine spun around and searched the ranch for the source of the howl but only came up with nothing. But then multiple loud howls echoed through the air in unison. "Shit!" Clementine pulled out her p228 pistol and aimed around her as she searched for the source of the howls. As she turned around to face her right side, a light gray blur ran towards her rapidly and scared her as it pushed down the tall green and yellow grass of the McCarroll ranch as it got closer. Clementine pulled the trigger and the bullet flew towards the running enemy. The creature dodged the bullet and stopped in its tracks as it got out of the tall grass.

Far away from Clementine stood a creature she had never seen before. A gray coywolf snarled at Clementine viciously as it stared at her with anger in its eye. "What the?" Clementine got abruptly pushed to the floor and she dropped her pistol as she landed with a thud. As she laid on the floor, another coywolf in front of her snarled as it slowly walked towards her. Clementine quickly searched around the dirt and found her gun. She rolled her body slightly towards the right and picked it up.

Clementine quickly aimed at the coywolf that walked slowly towards her when another one ran towards Clementine and grabbed the barrel of the pistol with its razor sharp teeth. The coywolf and Clementine both tugged at the weapon vigorously. "Let go you fucker!" The coywolf didn't listen and instead, pulled harder than before. Clementine was losing the game of tug of war and barely held onto her pistol. Clementine put her right middle finger on the trigger and pulled it quickly. A loud bang echoed through the air as a bullet escaped the pistol through the muzzle and whistled through the air as it flew towards the wooden wall of the small ranch house.

The recoil of the pistol pushed the coywolf and it let go of the barrel. The coywolf fell to the ground hard and landed on its right side. As the fierce creature slowly got up, Clementine aimed her muzzle at the coywolf's head.

Paws hitting the dirt made Clementine turn her head. To Clementine's left, a coywolf ran towards her. "Oh shit!" Clementine turned back and stared down the front sight as she pulled the trigger. The bullet launched out of the muzzle and sped into the coywolf's left eye. The coywolf fell to the ground and dirt filled the air.

Clementine turned around and aimed her pistol at the incoming enemy. Clementine pulled the trigger and the bullet flew towards its target. But the coywolf quickly moved to the right and avoided the bullet as it continued to run towards Clementine. "Shit!" Clementine pulled her trigger again and the coywolf dodged it once again. Tension built up inside of Clementine as she continued to fire bullets at the coywolf. But still, it continued to dodge them.

The coywolf was almost at its target as Clementine pulled her trigger once again. But this time, no bullet came out. "No!" The coywolf jumped on top of Clementine and pushed her to the ground. Its claws stabbed deeply into Clementine's entire body and she screamed in pain. The coywolf grabbed Clementine's pistol with its teeth and it was a force no match for her. The coywolf yanked the pistol out of Clementine's hands with ease and threw it far away from them. The pistol landed right next to another coywolf's dead carcass and one of the coywolves walked towards the cadaver slowly as it stared at it in complete disbelief.

The coywolf on top of Clementine pulled it's right paw down quickly and clawed at her red jacket, ripping it. Clementine groaned as the coywolf slowly raised its right paw once again. But before the coywolf could claw her again, Clementine quickly punched it in the nose. The coywolf fell to the ground and shook its head as it moderately got back up. Clementine, without hesitation, got up and ran away from the coywolves as the left side of her body burned and stung from the wolves claws.

Clementine pumped her arms up and down and quickly moved her legs like as if she ran neck and neck with another racer at a track meet. Except this was much worse than that. Instead, there was no finish line, and the competitors were coywolves trying to eat her alive.

The dirt path and wired fences on each side of them jumped up and down as Clementine ran as fast as she could. Clementine got back on the run down road and continued to sprint as hard as she could. But as Clementine continued to run, her mind became curious and wondered if the coywolves were still running after her. Clementine didn't want to turn her head but she couldn't help herself and curiosity took over her. Clementine quickly turned her head to face what was behind her only to find two of the same gray coywolves running side by side towards her. "Fuck!"

Clementine turned around and her heartbeat got faster and echoed through her head as she ran. Sweat ran down Clementine's face and it blinded her. Clementine quickly wiped it out of her eyes with her right hand and continued to run. The trees, grass, and leaves turned into green, brown, and red blurs as Clementine ran and bounced her head up and down as she continued her stride. As the sweat continued to run down Clementine's forehead and into her eyes they burned and itched. Clementine shook her head and the sweat fell into a crack on the run down road.

Both of the coywolves behind Clementine howled loudly in unison and she couldn't understand what they were trying to do. But then another coywolf howled as it ran out from behind the massive trees on the left side of the cracked road towards her. The coywolf jumped and swung its sharp claws towards Clementine's neck. But Clementine's speed made the coywolf miss its target and instead, clawed her deep in the left arm and blood escaped from it. The pain pierced through Clementine's entire left arm and she let out a scream.

Even though Clementine was injured, she still continued to run as she held onto her bleeding left arm. The coywolves snarled and growled as they continued to chase their target. In front of Clementine, a walker stood with one eyeball missing and it's jaw which hanged only by a thread. The zombified woman stared as Clementine and the small wolf pack ran towards her. Clementine ran around the walker and two coywolves followed her while one of them jumped on the walker and slashed its neck.

The two coywolves continued to chase after Clementine while the third one caught up. Clementine didn't have an idea where to go, or how to escape those stupid wolves. All Clementine could do was continue to run and pray she could get away from them. The dead walkers Clementine had killed earlier were now in view, and it was like as if they were obstacles to make her slow down. Clementine ran around them while the coywolves jumped over them with ease. One by one Clementine continued to get around the dead bodies, afraid if she did jump, she would hurt her body even more.

The coywolves all howled together in unison and Clementine quickly tripped as something ran into her legs. A sharp pain ran through both of Clementine's hands as she landed on the road. Clementine rolled around on the cracked road and stopped with her head face down. She turned her head to the right and stared at a dead woman who stared back at her with its lifeless white eyes.

Terrified, Clementine quickly rolled over her body. But the turn was too quick and Clementine winced at the intense pain that coursed through her body as she continued to roll over. Clementine rolled over completely and in front of her stood a fourth coywolf along with the other three under the thousands of stars in the night sky.

All of them were identical. Their white legs and paws turned brown from all the running through the grass and the dirt path of the McCarroll ranch. Their gray fur was rough and partially covered with dark brown dirt and pieces of dry grass. Their white and gray ears were pointed towards the night sky as they stared at her with their aggressive amber colored eyes that shined in the moonlight and their jet black round noses pointed at their wounded prey. Their bodies bounced lightly and their long legs bent up and down as they walked slowly towards their target. The coywolves all circled around Clementine as they snarled and growled. Clementine turned to face her wounded left arm and blood dripped from it and landed onto the very road she fell and sat on.

Clementine pulled out her survival knife with her right hand and made all the coywolves stop circling her. Clementine groaned as she got up slowly. Clementine raised her right knee and lunged while she continued to aim her knife towards one of the coywolves. Clementine raised her left foot and winced as a sharp pain ran through her left arm as she raised it. Slowly, Clementine got up and turned around to point at all of them with her survival knife. The coywolves didn't seem intimidated by the knife and circled Clementine once again.

"Get away from me!" Clementine yelled as she pointed at a coywolf that circled in front of her. The coywolves didn't listen and continued to circle Clementine. "Get away!" Without warning, a high pitched whistle echoed through the air in the distance. The coywolves raised their heads high and turned towards the whistle as their ears raised quickly. They all bent their right legs as they held their right paw slightly above the cracked road. They stared towards the straight road that led to The McCarroll Ranch and they all howled in unison, which made Clementine hold both of her hands towards her ears. The coywolves behind Clementine moved and stood next to the others as they continued their howls.

The coywolves quickly quieted their howls and Clementine let go of her ears. As all the coywolves were transfixed on the source of the whistle, Clementine observed that they've all turned their backs on her.

 _This is my chance! I can stab one of them and run away as fast as I can!_

Clementine firmly gripped her survival knife with her right hand and aimed at the back of one of the coywolves as she closed her left eye and kept her right targeting eye squinted slightly. Clementine got ready to swing her knife and stab the coywolf when again, another whistle echoed through the air. But this time, the pitch changed from a high pitch to a lower one. The coywolves quickly turned around and faced the girl with the knife in her hand.

They squinted their amber eyes and snarled at Clementine. But to Clementine's surprise, one of the gray coywolves ran away from her and went towards the source of the whistles. One by one the other coywolves left as well. But before they left, they would each give Clementine a death stare as a goodbye. Eventually, they all ran away from Clementine and disappeared into the distance, howling into the night. But Clementine's mind was puzzled as to what happened.

 _What the hell were those wolves doing? Why did they try to kill me? Who was whistling?_

An answer couldn't come into Clementine's mind and the sharp pain in her left arm made her just forget about those question. "Thank god for that, I would've been a goner if that person didn't whistle." Clementine hissed as she touched the deep bloody claw marks on her left arm. Blood slowly gushed out of her arm and landed in the cracks of the road.

"Good thing that wolf didn't claw the dog bite I got a long time ago, that would've been the worst." Clementine took her gaze away from the arm she stitched up long ago and tilted her head upwards towards the sky and stared at the thousands of dimmed stars. The waning crescent moon slowly disappeared behind one of the many dark gray clouds that took over the night sky.

"It's too dark to stay out here, especially in the condition I'm in." Clementine's right hand became a dark shade of red as she continued to press on the wound she got from the coywolves. Clementine turned away from where she ran away from the coywolves and faced the cracked road that led back to Richmond. "I guess I'll have to go back to Richmond." Clementine walked slowly down the road towards the place she left moments before, where Javi and his family, along with the good of Richmond, lived.

* * *

After walking in the dark and avoiding walkers as best she could, Clementine got to the entrance of Richmond and stood in front of the massive door that had the same symbol that was on one of the dead walkers back at the McCarroll Ranch. "Everyone's probably sleeping in there. How am I going to get this door open and get in?"

Clementine walked back and searched for another way in. But to Clementine's dismay, she couldn't find another way in, and the darkness only made it harder to find what she searched for. Clementine walked back to the massive door and raised her head to stare at the top. "Hello, anybody there?! I need someone to open the door!" After waiting for a while, nobody answered her. Clementine turned around and stared at the trees and abandoned cars that were in front of the walls of Richmond.

 _The only way I'm going to get this door open is if I wake somebody up. The only way I can do that is to make a loud enough noise to get their attention. But how am I going to do that?_

Clementine walked around and searched for anything that could make a loud enough noise to wake someone up. Clementine went up to a giant oak tree and the ground beneath her crunched as she stepped on thin leaves and weak branches. Clementine stared at the branches on the ground and then faced the giant walls of Richmond. "If I throw a branch at that door it's not going to make enough noise." Clementine left the massive oak tree and continued her search for something that could make a pretty loud noise. Clementine came across one of the abandoned cars in front of Richmond and stared at it.

"I could get in there and honk the car horn for a while, that might get their attention." Clementine pulled on the yellow door handle of the abandoned taxi cab and opened the door slowly. But to her dismay, the whole driving wheel was gone from the dashboard.

"Why the hell would someone take a fucking driving wheel?" Clementine sighed and slammed the door in frustration with her left arm. Pain pierced through Clementine's arm and she regretted her decision instantly. "Fuck!" Holding her wounded left arm, Clementine kicked one of the flat tires of the taxi cab and searched around once again.

On the other side of the broken road was an armored truck, like the one Kate used to block the walkers from entering Richmond. Clementine ran to the armored vehicle and opened the heavy door. Inside, broken glass laid on the driver seat as well as the floor. Clementine stared at the dashboard and found the driving wheel in its place. "Yes!" Clementine reached for the horn and pressed down as hard as she could. The horn blared when without warning, a sharp pain pierced through her left arm. Clementine's vision spun around and the loud horn's song died as she let go of the driving wheel and lost her balance.

The armored van went away from Clementine's sight and big dark oak trees, as well as very dim stars, were in front of her as she fell off the armored vehicle and landed on her already injured left arm. Clementine screamed in agony and rolled around in pain. "Help me! Please!" But no-one answered her. Clementine's vision slowly faded away and pain coursed through her entire body. Her view became dark and she fought to keep her eyes open. A groan escaped from behind the trees and the crackling of leaves accompanied it.

 _Oh no._

A walker emerged from behind the many trees and bushes and limped towards its next meal. Clementine reached for her knife and pulled it out of her holster. Clementine tried her hardest to try to get up but couldn't handle the pain. She groaned in pain as she stopped her efforts.

I'm not going to be able to use my knife, I guess I'll have to use my pistol and kill this fucker.

Clementine put her survival knife back in its holster and went for her pistol. But as she reached for it, she couldn't find it.

Oh no, those stupid fucking wolves yanked my pistol away from me! How am I going to kill this fucking walker?

A sharp pain pierced through her body and blood continued to gush out of her left arm. Clementine screamed and pressed hard on the bloody and deep claw marks with her right hand as the walker limped closer and closer.

 _What can I do now?_

Clementine continued to groan as she rolled around in pain when without warning, she felt something inside of her jacket press into her stomach. Clementine gasped as she unzipped her red jacket with her right hand and reached for the unusual object. Clementine grabbed onto it and ripped it out of her jacket. To her surprise, it was another pistol.

Before she left Richmond, Gabe had offered her a pistol that he saved for her. But to his displeasure, Clementine already had one of her own and declined. But Clementine instantly regretted her decision when her gut urged her to take it, almost like as if it knew she was going to be in this position. Clementine didn't remember taking the pistol because she never used it since she had one of her own. It actually didn't hurt to have another pistol.

Clementine turned her head to face the walker and gasped as it was right over her. The walker lunged towards Clementine's face and she aimed her new pistol at the walker's head. But it's attack was too fast and Clementine dropped her pistol as the walker was on top of her.

Clementine with her wounded left arm held the walker off and stopped it from reaching her face. The walker's jaws snapped rapidly and a metallic scent escaped it's bloody toothed mouth as Clementine continued to hold off the walker. Clementine's arms felt like noodles as they weakened and slowly went limp. Clementine reached for the pistol she dropped with her right hand. She slowly grabbed it and aimed at the groaning walker on top of her.

But Clementine's left arm was as strong as the thin branches that fell off the tree she went to earlier. Her left arm finally gave up and fell to the floor. The walker quickly fell towards Clementine and she pulled the trigger. A loud bang rocked her ears as a bullet rocketed out of the muzzle and went into the walker's forehead. Blood burst out of its head and covered Clementine's face. The walker dropped and landed on Clementine, it's head right next to Clementine's. Her ears rang loudly and Clementine covered her right ear to drown out the sound but to no avail.

The stars and dark gray clouds in the night sky above danced rapidly as Clementine's vision spun. Clementine fought as hard as she could to keep her eyes open as they tried to close. But Clementine was losing the battle and she dropped her pistol from her right hand and it hit the ground. Clementine stared at the fading stars as their dances slowed down and she slowly drifted away from this terrible world.


	2. A wolf's howl

A/N: Hello everyone. Never thought you'd see this chapter did you? Well to be honest with you, I didn't either. While I was so excited for this story and still am, something has happened. Over the past couple weeks, my motivation for writing has slowly died. I don't want to get into too much detail about what caused my motivation to drain, but it has and I'm really pissed about it. It's just this weird feeling I have and I can't quite describe it. It's not writer's block because I already have an idea of what I'm writing. It's like I really want to write, but there's like this force stopping me from doing so. I tried again and again but as I walk towards my computer, it's like as if a force was pushing me away from it. If I somehow get lucky enough to start writing, the force would slowly push me away and I'd stop writing in probably an hour max.

Writing has changed for me. It used to be this fun thing that I'd love to do. Excited to write down the chapters and share it with all of you. But now, it just feels like torture. Like as if it's an essay for one of my classes. So while it saddens me to say this, I'm announcing that today, I will be taking a break from writing fanfics and this site. I need to get away from my problems and get back to how I used to be. I loved writing and now, now it's just... I don't even know. I feel this will be the only way to get my writing motivation back. I want to be like how I was when I first started writing fanfics. Any free time I had I would write my fanfics, listen to music and have lots of fun. Now I'm torturing myself to write and the music doesn't even help it get any better.

So I don't know when I'll come back or if I ever will. But I want to say thank you to everyone, all the friends I've met, all the people that have reviewed my stories, well except for a specific person which some of you may know, and YOU the reader. So goodbye to all of you guys. I had a pretty fun time being here but It's time for me to head off and go find my motivation again. This Lone Wolf is going away and will come back better than ever before. If you want to be updated on what's going on, feel free to look at my profile as I'll update it when things get better.

While I'm not too fond of this chapter since I know I didn't do my best and I know I could've done better, hopefully, you guys can at least kind of enjoy it. I hope you all have a great day and I'll hopefully see you guys soon!

 _Chapter 2_

 _A wolf's howl_

 _The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear._

 _-Gandhi_

* * *

The baby blue sky stared down at Clementine as she laid perfectly still. Clementine opened her eyes slowly and struggled to keep them open as the burning hot sun blinded her. Something prickled and itched Clementine's back as she turned her head to her right. Giant oak trees, as well as dry dark green grass, surrounded Clementine as far as the eye could see. Clementine gasped as she rubbed her eyes with her cold and grass-stained hands. Clementine stopped rubbing her eyes and opened them again, but the trees were still there. Clementine pushed herself off the ground with her hands and got up with ease. As Clementine stood she gasped at how easy it was for her to get up. Clementine faced her left arm and to her surprise, it was perfectly normal.

Clementine moved her arm around up and down to examine it. The arm was in perfect condition and the deep claw marks left by the coywolves she met before were no longer where they used to be. "Where the hell did the claw marks go?" Clementine continued to stare at the uninjured arm like as if she was in a trance, unable to turn her head away from it. "Are you alright sweetpea?"

The familiar voice forced Clementine to get out of the trance she was in and froze in complete disbelief, unable to move a single muscle.

"Clem?" The man's deep voice was soft and gave Clementine a warm feeling inside of her, like as if she felt safe. Clementine turned around slowly towards the source of the voice. Trees went up and down as she turned around to glance at something she thought she would never face again. On the green grass was a moderately sized log which was cracked and moldy. Behind the log was an abundance of massive trees. On one side of the log, a man sat as he stared at the confused girl in front of him. He had a mix of confusion and worry marked on his face. His dark blue collared shirt was wrinkled and his sleeves were rolled up. The man's jet black eyebrows raised as he continued to stare at the confused girl with his dark brown eyes.

"L..L...Lee?" Clementine's eyes widened as she stared at the man with her mouth wide open. The man Clementine had known for so long didn't even acknowledge her. Instead, he just continued to stare Clementine with a blank face. Beyond the broken log and behind one of the enormous trees, the crunch of leaves echoed. Clementine's eyes widened as she stared at the tree behind Lee. A gray furred creature walked slowly from behind the brown oak tree and crunched the brown leaves on the ground with ease. The creature's eyes lit up like flashlights in the night, but yet the sun was still high above them. It's slightly yellowish and sharp teeth rocked and shook as the creature snarled at the little girl standing in front of the grown man who sat down on the moldy log.

The gray coywolf stood still yet the sound of crunching leaves still continued to echo throughout the trees. A moving figure caught Clementine's eye. Behind another tree, another gray coywolf emerged slowly to reveal itself. More and more leaves crunched like as if they were all a part of one big symphony. Clementine turned her attention to the other trees as more of the same ferocious animals started to get out of hiding and walked slowly away from the trees. There was one coywolf, then two, then three, then four. The coywolves' round jet black noses and aggressive amber eyes stared at the man that sat on the cracked log on the grass. The coywolves all snarled and bent forward, like as if they were about to do a one hundred meter dash at the Olympics, waiting for the gun to fire so they could start their sprint towards the finish line.

The signal came in a way that was completely unexpected. A high pitched whistle echoed through the massive trees in the even bigger forest. The whistle silenced all the snarls that filled the air and the coywolves turned their heads towards one point and Clementine couldn't help but follow their gaze. Where the coywolves all pointed their heads, a silhouette of what seemed to be a man stood with some kind of weapon in their right hand. The mysterious figure pointed their left pointer finger at the man who sat on the log, the man who took care of Clementine when the whole apocalypse started, the man who would do anything to protect her, the man named Lee.

The figure whistled but this time instead of it being a high pitch, it was instead a low pitch. The figure lowered their finger and the coywolves turned their heads towards Lee as they growled. "Lee get out of there!" Lee didn't respond and instead sat there, like as if he didn't hear a single word. "Lee come on!" The man sat still without moving a single muscle. Clementine ran towards Lee as fast as she could. But as she got closer to Lee, he raised his hand. Clementine stopped and couldn't help but stare at the held up hand. "It's no use. I'm going to die anyway." Lee's voice was cold and grave and it almost made Clementine shed a tear. Lee slowly put his hand down and stared at Clementine with his dull eyes. "What do you mean Lee?" Lee extended his arm out and held it up for Clementine. Even though Clementine was far away, what Lee wanted to show her was still visible.

On the arm was a huge bite mark with deep red blood that oozed out of it. Clementine's heart shattered inside of her. Tears started to form in her eyes and she became powerless. "No you won't die, you have to come with me, we can find something to heal you." Clementine tried to keep herself together but couldn't, her voice made what she said sound more like a plea rather than an order as she croaked her words out.

Clementine blinked and almost fainted as she stared at the man sitting on the log. Lee's teeth were deep red and his eyes were pure white. Blood was spattered all over his blue-collared shirt and jeans. "There is no cure Clem, there's nothing you can do." Even though Lee was a full on walker, he somehow found a way to continue to speak instead of groan and moan. Clementine wiped the tears out of her eyes in hopes of it just being the tears that were messing with her vision and that Lee was actually okay. But it wasn't the tears. Lee wasn't his normal self. He instead, was just an outer shell of what he used to be and inside, a dark beast laid inside, controlling his every move.

Clementine started to walk back slowly but lost her balance as she tripped on a rock. Pain coursed through her back as she landed in the dirt. Clementine stared at Lee as he still sat on the broken down log. Lee held out his bloody and gray hand as he reached for Clementine, even though she was far away from his reach. "Clementine, please help me…" Lee's voice was raspy and sounded like as if he was way older than he appeared.

Without warning, one of the coywolves jumped on top of Lee's body and pushed him to the floor. The other coywolves jumped over the log and started to feast on Lee's body. "No!" Clementine reached for her gun but it wasn't in its holster. In fact, none of her weapons were where they should've been. Clementine's red tailcoat blazer shrug was gone and in its place was her beige shirt. The red jacket wasn't tied around her waist and nowhere to be found. "Get away from him!" The coywolves continued to chew on Lee's body and ripped out his guts as well as the skin of his face and body. Blood got onto the bodies of the coywolves as they fought to eat as much as they could. Clementine wanted to go help Lee but she knew he was a goner. Even if he was somehow still alive, the coywolves would kill her in an instant if she tried to save him.

Lee reached out his hand towards Clementine, even though four coywolves were continuing to rip his body apart. One of the coywolves quickly bit Lee's reaching hand and ripped it off his arm. Lee screamed but the scream quickly died as the coywolves continued to feast on his body. Clementine had the urge to throw up and held her right hand towards her mouth. One of the coywolves stopped chomping on Lee's body and stared at Clementine. Blood dripped from the coywolf's mouth as it growled at Clementine. In some weird way, it seemed that the coywolf actually smiled at Clementine and exposed its teeth covered in Lee's blood as it snarled at her. All the coywolves stopped chewing on Lee's body and stared at Clementine as they too, snarled at her. A high pitched whistle echoed through the air and the coywolves all turned their heads towards the whistle. Clementine slowly crawled away from them as she continued to stare at the coywolves.

A low-pitched whistle echoed through the forest and the coywolves turned their attention towards the girl crawling away from them. They all howled in unison as they ran towards Clementine. Clementine continued to crawl back as they got closer to her. Clementine was caught up in fear and couldn't get up. A coywolf jumped towards Clementine, but as it got to her, Clementine opened up her eyes and stared at a white tiled ceiling.

* * *

Clementine gasped as she quickly sat up. Clementine searched around as she sat on a cold and hard surface. Sweat dripped from her head and landed on her beige shirt as it joined the other drops of sweat that had already fallen from her face. Clementine stared at the stain as she wiped her head with her left hand. As Clementine wiped her head, she noticed the area where the coywolf had clawed her was now bandaged and stitched up. Clementine moved her left arm around in a circular motion and an itchy sensation discomforted her, but her arm was better than how it was before.

Clementine took her focus away from her injured arm and stared at where she now sat. The cold sheets of the bed made Clementine shudder as they pressed against her skin. Clementine threw the sheets off of her legs and a big woof of air swooshed towards her face. Clementine searched around the room and found that far away, on a chair far away from her, laid her red bloody tailcoat blazer shrug. Holes caused by the coywolves were spread throughout it. Clementine turned around and took her legs off the medical bed and let them hang off the side. Clementine felt short as the bed's height made it so Clementine's boots couldn't touch the solid floor. Clementine was about to jump off the bed go get her jacket when the door in front of her opened up.

A man in a white lab coat and a clipboard in his right hand came into the room. The man slowly closed the door as Clementine stared at him. "Good morning Clementine, how are you feeling?" The man walked to a table and reached for a pen that was laid on it. "I'm fine Dr. Lingard. But how did you find me? The last thing I remembered was that I was laying on the floor and just looking up to the sky." Dr. Lingard walked with clipboard and pen in hand and sat on a jet black chair that had wheels at the bottom of them. "Well, I don't really know. I just saw Javi and he ran in here with you in his arms. I thought you got bit by a walker as you tried to get AJ."

That last word was like a bullet to Clementine's heart. She tried so hard to get her little goofball back, and all that hard work was for nothing. Clementine stared at the tiled floor as she sighed. "Speaking of AJ, where is he? Did you get to the McCarroll Ranch?" Clementine hung up her head and stared at Dr. Lingard's depressed face. "I.." Without warning, the door Dr. Lingard entered through opened once more. A man wearing a wrinkled white shirt with blue sleeves coming from underneath came through the door. The man's eyes widened as he stared at Clementine who stared back. "Clementine, you're alright!"

"Yeah, I didn't really think I would be." Clementine tilted her head up and was actually revealed to see Javi again. "See Gabe, I told you Clementine would be alright." Javi moved away from the doorway and revealed that Gabe stood behind him. "Clem!" Gabe ran towards the girl that sat on the medical bed and hugged her. Pain coursed through Clementine's entire body and she let out a groan. Gabe quickly let go in response and backed away from her. "Sorry, Clementine." Gabe scratched the back of his head and stared at Clementine awkwardly.

"It's alright Gabe." Clementine grabbed her left arm with her right hand and moved it around slowly. The whole room turned silent except the clicks of Dr. Lingard's pen as he wrote something down on his clipboard. "So how did you guys find me anyway?"

Javi leaned against a wall and stared at Clementine as he prepared to tell the story. "Well, it was pretty crazy. I just suddenly woke up in my room when I heard something. Gabe over here said that he heard a gunshot. We looked out the window and nothing happened for a while. But then we heard a weird sound and it sounded like a howl or something so Gabe, Kate, and I went outside to go take a look. We stood at the top of the door and we saw you laying there on the floor. But next to you were these wolves. One was howling and one was even licking your face. Some were even eating a walker."

Clementine gasped and stared at her left arm where a coywolf had clawed her. "There were wolves next to my body?" "Yeah, there were. About four of them actually." Clementine's eyes widened as she took her gaze away from her arm and stared at Javi. "Are you alright Clem?" Javi raised an eyebrow as he noticed Clementine's reaction.

"When I was looking for AJ, I got attacked by some wolves. That's how this happened to me." Clementine raised her left arm and showed the area where she got clawed, which was now patched up. Javi stopped leaning against the wall and folded up his arms. "You're not saying that the wolves…

"Yeah, that's what I'm saying. There were three wolves. I killed one of them and later on two more came. All four of them caught up and surrounded me. I was lucky I could escape from them."

Dr. Lingard made a quick motion with the pen in his right hand towards the stitched up wound on Clementine's left arm. "When I saw that wound, I could've sworn it must've come from a knife. I've never seen a wound come from a wolf before in my life. But if what you're saying is true." Dr. Lingard stood up from the chair and its wheels spun backward as he pushed it back. Dr. Lingard stared down at the victim of the coywolf attack as he scratched his beard with his pen. "Why would they warn us about you when we didn't even know where you were. If they were after you, they could've just killed you right there."

Clementine didn't say anything and just shook her head slightly as she shrugged her shoulders. The room was filled with complete silence and everyone just shook their heads. "I… I have no idea." The question Dr. Lingard had asked completely baffled everyone in the room. "Did you get to the McCarroll Ranch before you got attacked?"

"Yeah, I did." Dr. Lingard raised an eyebrow at that. "Well then where's AJ?" Clementine shook her head slowly as she heard that last word once again. "He wasn't there." Dr. Lingard gasped as he couldn't believe what he had heard. "AJ wasn't there? He had to be. I brought him there on David's orders myself. I know for a fact he's there. There are other people there that were taking care of him, how could he not be there?"

"When I got there nobody was alive. There were bodies everywhere. I looked through the ranch and saw a door that had my name on it. I went in there and someone wrote on the wall and said that AJ wasn't there and that he was gone. They also said that they hoped I liked running. After that was when I got attacked by the wolves." Everyone in the room gasped and shook their head. "Everyone died?" Dr. Lingard pulled his chair back towards him and sat back down on it.

"Well, there was one person that was alive. He told me that a group named the Brotherhood took AJ. He also told me that their leader was like the devil and that he was powerful." After that nobody said a word. As the room fell silent, the scenes played out in Clementine's head. A metallic scent was in the air and throughout the building. Flies swarmed the dead carcasses that laid across the wooden floors of the ranch house. Their throats slashed, their guts removed from their bodies and ripped to shreds in front of them, and a big hole where their left eye should've been, the blue chalk written message that revealed AJ was gone, the coywolves that chased her down and almost killed her, the man that told her about the Brotherhood. All the images of that whole ordeal continued to play in Clementine's head. And then it hit her.

"We have to go to the McCarroll Ranch." Everyone stared at Clementine with all their eyebrows raised. "Why?"

"Everything that happened over at the McCarroll Ranch must've been planned. Think about it, everyone dead except one person, all of them died the same way, the written message on the wall, the wolves trying to kill me, it's all part of a plan." Dr. Lingard started to scratch his beard with his pen with his eyebrows still raised. "Yes it's part of a plan, but why do we need to go back there? There's nothing there for us."

"Yes, there is. The message said that I hoped that I liked running. After that they wolves started chasing after me. The wolves had to have been waiting for me to get there. Then when I got there they attacked me."

"So that means.." Dr. Lingard got out of his chair and pushed it away from him once again. "The wolves were told where and when to attack. And-

-That means that someone owns them." Javi interrupted before Dr. Lingard could even finish. "Yes exactly." Dr. Lingard nodded. "That also means that their little hideout must've been somewhere close to the McCarroll Ranch," Clementine added.

"They sound pretty smart. I don't know if it's such a good idea going over there." Gabe scratched the back of his head as he stared at Clementine. "It might not be a good idea but I need to get AJ back. I'd rather die than leave AJ with the brotherhood." Gabe's eyes widened and he stopped scratching his head.

"Well if Clementine's going then I'm going to. Can't let you go alone, Clem." Clementine smiled as she stared at the man who would join her on her mission. "Well, I'm going to." Clementine also gave a smile to Gabe who smiled back. Everyone in the room looked at Dr. Lingard who didn't say a word.

"Well I would go if I could but I have to look over the rest of the people of Richmond." Dr. Lingard walked away from them and went towards a desk that was filled with papers and folders.

"Well, I'll go see if Kate can come with us. Come'on Gabe." Javi walked out of the room while Gabe didn't leave and stared at Clementine. "Well uh, I'll see you later Clem." "Bye Gabe." Gabe nodded as he smiled at Clementine. Gabe slowly opened the metal door and closed it slowly behind him.

Dr. Lingard left his desk and walked towards Clementine who continued to stare at the metal door where Javi and Gabe had left. "Get some rest Clementine, it'll help your arm heal and you'll be ready to go to the McCarroll Ranch." Clementine got off the side of the medical bed and pulled the cold bed sheets towards her which made her shudder. "But you should know, if these people are as smart as they seem, do not underestimate them. They're unpredictable. Try to look after yourselves."

"Alright, I will." Dr. Lingard opened the metal door and turned off the lights of the room. He slowly closed the door behind him and left Clementine all alone in the medical room.

* * *

"Clementine? You ready?" Clementine slowly opened her eyes and stared at the tiled ceiling above her. "Clementine?" Clementine turned her head towards the voice and saw that Gabe was staring at her through the big pane of glass on the right side of the door above the big door handle. Clementine slowly sat up as she continued to stare at Gabe through the glass.

"Yeah, I'm ready." Clementine nodded and a big smile emerged on Gabe's face. "Alright, I'll wait out here for you." Gabe walked away from the glass on the door and Clementine let her legs hang off the side of the medical bed and jumped off it.

A mirror on the other side of the room peeked Clementine's interest. Clementine casually walked over to the mirror and stared at the chair in front of it with her bloody red jacket. Pieces of the red thread were ripped out of the jacket and hanged down like pieces of hair. Clementine walked to the chair and grabbed the bloody jacket and held it up gently. Clementine turned the jacket towards the mirror and stared through one of the many holes on the jacket towards her reflection.

Clementine sighed as she lowered the jacket. Clementine wrapped the bloody jacket around her waist and tied it like how she did before. After Clementine finished tying her jacket around her waist she noticed that on the chair was the pistol that Gabe had given her. Clementine picked up the pistol and moved it around as she analyzed it.

 _It really didn't hurt to have another pistol after all._

Clementine put the pistol back in her holster and turned to face the mirror. Clementine stared at her reflection as she rolled up her left sleeve and exposed her stitched up wound to the open cold air of the medical room. Clementine grabbed her wounded left arm and held onto it as she shrugged the arm.

 _Still, hurts, but it isn't too bad. I'll be fine._

Clementine stopped shrugging her left arm and rolled down her sleeve to cover the stitched arm once again. Clementine stared at the mirror and at the bottom of it was her blue and white baseball cap with the capital letter D leaned slightly to the right. Clementine grabbed her hat and held onto it as she stared at the hair that would've been covered by said hat. Clementine's brown hair was short just like how Lee made it, yet completely different. Those hair ties Lilly had given her so long ago, were now gone. Part of her hair came down the left side of her face and covered part of her eyebrow. If Clementine's hair had gone any lower, it would've covered her left eye.

Clementine sighed as she glared at her new hairstyle. For Clementine, it wasn't what she expected. While Clementine did expect it to be short she didn't expect it to be that… bad. Clementine was so used to Lee's haircut since she had it for so long. But how Clementine's hair was now it was… awkward. Clementine just shook her head and put on her beloved hat her father had given her. As Clementine put on her hat, a warm feeling emerged inside of her. Like as if she, in her eyes, felt safe.

Clementine slightly jumped as someone knocked rhythmically on the metal door in front of the nurse bed she was in moments ago. Clementine walked towards the door and through the big dirty pane of glass on the right side of the door was Gabe who stared at her. Gabe waved his hand and Clementine couldn't help but wave back as she slowly opened the heavy door. Gabe stood in front of Clementine as she finished closing the metal door. Gabe smiled and scratched his head as he stared at Clementine. "You ready to go meet up with the others?"

"Yeah, I'm ready." Clementine walked away from the room she laid in and Gabe followed suit. "So can you tell me about what happened after you left?" Gabe begged as they both walked down the alcohol smelling hallway. "Well, it's a pretty long story..."

* * *

Clementine and Gabe walked towards Javi, Kate, and Eleanor who stood at the massive front gates of Richmond. "Why are you here Eleanor? Remember when you snitched us out to Joan? Why do you think I would want you to come with us?" Javi shook his head as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I know what I did was wrong but it was for a good reason. I was stopping the situation from becoming worse." Eleanor shook her head in frustration as she already had the same conversation before.

"Are those two still going at it?" Clementine asked as she and Gabe walked towards them. "Yep."

"You did? Then how come Tripp died? You call that stopping the situation?" "Fuck you Javi." Javi and Eleanor got in each other's faces and Clementine and Gabe ran towards them as fast as they could. Javi and Eleanor both bungled up their hands into fists as Clementine got in between them. Clementine placed her right hand on Eleanor's stomach and her left hand on Javi's stomach as she pushed them both apart. Both Eleanor and Javi were speechless as they stared at Clementine.

"Come on guys, stop fighting over this! What's done is done Javi! Eleanor didn't know Joan would kill somebody. If she did, she wouldn't have told her in the first place. It wasn't her fault."

The air was silent as Clementine finished speaking. Javi crossed his arms at Clementine while Eleanor smiled. "You're lucky Eleanor. If Clementine hadn't been on your side, you would've been kicked out by now." Javi walked away from both of them as he went towards Kate who leaned against the massive doors which led out of Richmond. But Kate didn't seem too happy and another argument began with them.

"Thanks, Clementine, at least somebody understands what I did." Clementine turned her gaze away from Javi and stared at Eleanor, who had a smile on her face. "I lied Eleanor." Eleanor's smile quickly went away and she crossed her arms. "I only told Javi that because I need all of us to work as a team. While I don't agree with what you did, I'm willing to put it behind us to get my little goofball back." Eleanor shook her head and walked away from Clementine and went towards the door that towered over them.

"What was all that about?" Clementine turned around as Gabe walked towards her. Before Clementine could speak, the massive door behind her started to rise. Clementine turned to face the towering door as it raised itself. Dirt kicked up and everyone went silent. The gears raising the door turned slowly as they screeched. As the door continued to raise, Javi, Kate, and Eleanor went under the door. Javi waved Clementine and Gabe towards them as he disappeared from sight. Clementine stood still as Gabe passed her. "You alright Clem?" Gabe stopped walking towards the massive door and turned around to face Clementine.

Clementine couldn't move, she froze and the only thing on her mind was what happened outside the very walls she was in right now. Clementine shuddered as cold finger ran down her left arm like the way her own blood did. A horn blared in Clementine's left ear while a wolf's lone yet powerful howl echoed in her right ear. Small knives stabbed Clementine's upper body and twisted inside of her. A metal scent was through the air and it wrapped itself around Clementine.

In the distance, a pair of amber eyes peeked through some bushes near one of the trees outside of the walls of Richmond. As Clementine made eye contact with the mysterious eyes, their amber colors expanded and they changed to a shade of deep red.

"Clementine?" A hand laid on Clementine's left shoulder. But as Clementine turned her head to face who it was that held onto her, nothing was there except for her shoulder, not covered at all. "You alright?" Clementine followed the voice and faced where Gabe stood. Clementine gazed at her left shoulder again and Gabe's hand was there. "Clem?" Clementine shook her head rapidly and snapped back into reality. "Uhhh yeah I'm fine." Gabe raised an eyebrow at that. "You sure?"

"Yeah." Clementine walked away from Gabe and left him behind as she walked towards the exit out of Richmond and to the entrance where she almost died not that long ago. An armored van had it's left door wide open and Javi and the rest of his group stood around in a circle close to the open door. Clementine walked slowly towards them as she stared at the trees in search of the aggressive amber eyes that watched her. But they were nowhere to be found. The amber eyes were ones she knew all too well. Especially when four pairs of them stared at her all at once not long ago.

Clementine got to the area where the rest of the group was circled around. As Clementine stood behind Javi, he stepped aside so Clementine could get a glance at what they stared at. On the cracked road was a walker, the same one that fell on her the same night those coywolves attacked her. A moderately sized hole was in the man's head and dried blood surrounded it. Clementine stared at the blood that was around the walker's body and noticed that it was a much brighter shade than the blood that came from the walker's head.

"This is where we found you. One of the wolves was howling towards us while two others were chewing on that walker. It was some pretty scary stuff." Clementine stared at the cadaver but couldn't find any signs of it being bitten like Javi had said. "I don't see anything bitten." Javi walked over to the dead walker and kneeled over it. Javi slowly lifted the carcass and pushed it forward at the same time. The body was fully rotated and it's pure white eyes stared towards the sky. Well, one of the eyes did. The other was completely ripped out of its socket and was next to its body. Bone's popped out of its chest and part of the big and small intestine were ripped out and torn apart.

"Hey, guy's what's going…" Gabe didn't finish his sentence as he stared at the walker that laid on the road completely ripped apart, without being able to say another word. "Was this here before?"

Kate nodded as she continued to stare at the corpse. "Yeah, it was here. We just got so obsessed with helping Clementine that we didn't check out the walker."

"Where'd the wolves go?" Clementine stared down at the pool of her dried up blood where what seemed like a very vague paw print was printed on it. "We don't know. When Kate, Gabe, and I went to take you to Dr. Lingard, we just closed the door on them. I guess they just ran off."

Clementine kneeled down as she continued to stare at her own dried up blood. But then something caught her eye. In the distance, a walker limped out from behind the trees and onto the cracked, open road. But the walker was unlike any Clementine had ever seen before. Both of the walker's arms were gone and a huge hole was where the arm would've connected to the rest of its body. A slash was on its throat just like at the McCarroll Ranch. Clementine ran towards the walker as the rest of the group followed her. But they all stopped in their tracks as a lone yet powerful howl echoed through the air.

 _Oh no._

Leaves crackled and crunched as the howl slowly died down. A gray creature slowly emerged from behind the trees and sneaked behind its target. The walker turned around as the snarls from the coywolf got its attention. After the walker stared at the coywolf for only a second, it pounced towards the walker and slashed its throat with its razor-sharp claws. Blood spewed out of the walker's neck and it fell to the ground with a thud. The coywolf ran towards its meal and feasted on it. The walker's skin was ripped apart with ease as the coywolf bit and chewed on it. Blood soon came on the coywolf's mouth and quickly licked it clean off.

"Jesus, was that the wolf that attacked you?" Javi didn't even glance at Clementine as he asked his question. All he could do was stare in horror at the coywolf far away from him. "Well, one of them."

Suddenly a whistle echoed through the air and the coywolf stopped it's feast to stare in the direction of where it came from. As the Coywolf stared at the direction opposite of where Clementine and the rest of her group were, Clementine took out her pistol and aimed it towards the dangerous creature. Another whistle echoed through the air and the coywolf quickly turned its head towards the group standing in front of the massive walls of Richmond. The coywolf's amber eyes widened as it stared at the barrel of the gun that stared back at it.

Without hesitation, Clementine pulled the trigger and a bullet shot out and rocketed towards the coywolf. But the bullet wasn't fast enough to fool the coywolf as it dodged the bullet. The coywolf howled and started to run away from the group. "After that wolf!" Clementine yelled as she started to sprint towards the coywolf.

"Wait Clementine the wolf's too fast, we need to get a car!" Eleanor's voice could barely be heard as Clementine's breathing almost drowned all the other noises as she continued her stride. "There's no time, come on!" The rest of the group reluctantly ran as they all followed one of the coywolves that attacked Clementine to wherever it led them. Behind them, the gates of Richmond slowly lowered as it locked them out of Richmond and set them in a dangerous world where anything could happen.


	3. Sweet and Bloody Revenge

A/N: Oh, it's so great to be back! Oh, how I missed the feeling of posting chapters. The nervousness, the excitement, oh man I didn't think I'd ever feel it again. But after taking some time off, I actually managed to post again.

First off let me apologize for the absurdly long authors note. But anyway, thank you to everyone who gave me support for when I took my break from this site. It was a decision I didn't want to make but I really had no choice. I thought you guys would've gotten angry with me just leaving, but you guys actually supported me and wanted me to return. It just blows my mind how awesome you guys are. You guys told me such nice and awesome things and I'm just so grateful for all of you. I couldn't have come back from my terrible writer burn out without you guys.

If you've checked my profile after I left, then you know that it was pretty crazy. Sorry about that guys. After I was on my writers burn out, I wanted to change everything. Hit the reset button and restart everything, except the stories of course. Everything on that profile was the emotion I was feeling, the things on my mind, and the things that stopped me from writing. I made it seem like my profile was being corrupted because I myself was being corrupted. This evil entity took over my mind and kept bringing my motivation down. Every single time I tried to write it kept pushing me away from the keyboard. It came from out of nowhere and I just can't describe how or where it came from. But as I posted the last chapter, I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Like as if the entity just disappeared from me. I spent the weeks after playing the games that got me into writing and the music and everything, as well as reading what people told me and the reviews you guys have left.

Today, I'm happy to announce that I'm finally back. Back to the old grind and back to this beautiful website and all the great people that exist on it. Again thank you for everything all you guys have done, I really appreciate it. This Authors Note is too long man, so let's get to the chapter, shall we? If you're reading this on the day this is posted, Happy Thanksgiving! If you aren't reading this on the day the chapter was posted or don't celebrate Thanksgiving, I still hope you have a great day! Anyway, on with the chapter!

 _Chapter 3_

 _Sweet and Bloody Revenge_

 _Liberty for wolves is death to the lambs._

 _-Isaiah Berlin_

* * *

After running for what felt like an eternity to Clementine and the rest of the group, they all slowed down to a walk to catch their breath. After only the first few minutes of their chase, the coywolf's speed was just too much for the group and it ran away from sight almost as soon as they had left Richmond.

The bodies of the walkers Clementine had killed such a long time ago still were laid out across the cracked road. After coming past the same spot already, for now, a third time, she already had some of their faces engraved in her memory. A young man with a black varsity jacket and black jeans with a head of messy hair of the same color. Killed by a bullet to the head. The young woman with long golden brown hair who wore a ripped black shirt with the words "I Virginia" with a heart symbol in between the snow white words, killed by one of the coywolves that chased after Clementine. Funny how the coywolf managed to perfectly claw at the heart and cut it in half.

"A baseball fan," Javi muttered under his breath. Clementine knew exactly who Javi talked about. An older gentleman with slick black hair and a white baseball jersey on which the capital letter B was outlined with blue and white lines and the head of a bluejay on the left side of it. On the center of the jersey was the word Bluefield. He was Killed by a knife to the right eye. Clementine turned around and sure enough, it was the same man she thought of.

The thought of that made Clementine shiver. Clementine remembered some of the faces of the walkers she had killed; but what about the person that killed all those people at the Ranch? Would they remember their faces? Would they remember their screams? Their crying and pleases for forgiveness? Would they?

The very thought angered Clementine. All those innocent people, killed by someone who didn't give a shit. Clementine balled her hands into fists and gritted her teeth. Clementine wanted to find out who was behind all this, find out who was responsible, and find out who took AJ.

The red and yellow leaves let go of their grasp on the branches of the giant oak trees on the sides of the long cracked road and glided and drifted slowly through the air as they touched the ground. Like all the lives of the people at the ranch killed one by one. The blinding sun rose and made Clementine and the rest of her group sweat bullets. The baby blue sky was perfect, not a single cloud in sight.

"Uh, Clementine? Can you slow down?" Clementine didn't answer and instead continued her trek down the long road. "Clementine?"

Clementine shook her head and got out of her trance, "What?" Clementine turned around to face the group who stopped walking a while ago as she herself continued on. "Clem the McCarroll Ranch isn't going anywhere, why are you in such a rush?"

"Those bastards are close to the McCarroll Ranch and they have AJ, I'm not gonna waste any more time than I already have." Clementine squinted her eyes at Javi as he folded his arms.

"Don't worry Clementine, everything will be fine." Clementine balled up her hands and a sudden beast was unleashed that she never knew she had inside of her. "Don't worry? Don't worry?! Do you know what I have gone through?! I've lost AJ and almost had him in my grasp until these fuckers came along and fucked everything up. Then I was chased by wolves, nearly killed, and they kidnapped AJ. Now you want me to not worry?!"

Javi and the rest of the group had their eyes widened and their mouths open as Clementine turned around and restarted her trek towards the McCarroll Ranch. But just as soon as Clementine restarted her walk, a powerful howl echoed through the air. Clementine stopped dead in her tracks and tried to find where the howl came from. Clementine searched the area with her eyes but couldn't find anything besides tall oak trees, falling red and yellow leaves, and the dilapidated road filled with cracks and holes.

The howl grew louder and came from further down the road. Clementine quickly sprinted towards the howls. Clementine quickly jumped over any dead bodies that got in her way as she neared the McCarroll Ranch. The leaves beneath her boots crunched into pieces and the tall yellow and brown grass that seeped through the cracks of the charcoal gray road were flattened as she continued her stride.

"Clementine wait!" Javi raised his hand towards Clementine's back but she didn't even acknowledge him. "Clem wait up!" Gabe left Javi and the rest of the group as he ran towards Clementine. "Gabe!" Kate yelled at the top of her lunges but just like Clementine, Gabe didn't acknowledge her either. "Why is it that Gabe never listens to me but always does anything he can with Clem?" Javi put his right hand on his forehead as he shook his head.

"Because he likes her Javi." A smile went across Kate's face as she stared at Gabe running towards Clementine who was way ahead of him. "Well, when I was younger I didn't go that crazy for a girl." Javi chuckled at that. When he was younger he really didn't go that crazy for girls. In fact, it was actually the other way around. All the girls would always ask him if he was that baseball player that scored that home run or the guy that made an epic catch. But now that Javi thought about it, maybe he would've been that way to if he wasn't a baseball player. "It's kinda cute if you ask me." Eleanor also had a smile on her face as she stared towards the two kids running towards the McCarroll Ranch.

"Ahh young love." A deep and low voice said from behind them.

Everyone's heart dropped into their stomachs and their eyes widened. "Don't bother turning your heads." The man said as Javi, Kate, and Eleanor barely turned their heads. "Who are you? What do you want from us?" Javi tried to stare at the man from behind by the corner of his eye but to no avail. "What I want is for you to start walking forward, slowly." The man spoke his last word softly, almost as if he was putting someone to sleep. "I wouldn't try to run either."

"Yeah we know, you'll shoot us." Javi shook his head and smiled. He'd heard of this same scenario so many times before from people, in movies, in books. It was always the same scenario.

"Are you crazy? I would never do something like that. I like to uhh, what's the word?" Oh yeah, I like to make things more abominable." Just as the last word came out of the man's mouth the rustle of bushes and the crunch of leaves filled their ears. A growl escaped from one side of the road and a snarl came from the other side. "Yes, I like things more abominable. You understand don't you?"

"Please, there's no need for this."

"Yeah, can't there be another way?" Both Kate and Eleanor tried to plead to the unknown man but to no avail. "Why yes there can be another way. Just drop your guns and we won't have to make this any harder."

"Fuck that." Both Eleanor and Kate turned their heads towards Javi, who fought against the man. "Such a foul mouth. Didn't your parents ever teach you about manners?" Only the crunch of leaves and the growls coming from the trees made noise as everyone fell silent. "I guess not, considering they're both not here. I just wish I could've been there, seeing them slowly breathe in and out until they took their last breath."

A tear slid down Javi's face as he balled up his fist. He slowly shook his head as he stared down at one of the many cracks on the very road he stood on. The tear dropped from his face and landed in the very crack which he stared at. The man behind Javi slowly breathed in through his mouth and exhaled the same way. "Yep, I wish I could've been there."

The man chuckled as the crunch of leaves came closer towards them. Javi rose his head from the broken road and stared to his right towards the source of the noise. Everyone stared in awe as a massive creature slowly walked out from behind the trees and stared at them with its cold golden brown eyes.

* * *

Clementine got to where the straight road ended it's path and curved to the right to make another.

 _I need to find clues to where they went with AJ._

Clementine ran down the dirt path towards what she once thought to be this grand structure when in reality it was a poorly sized ranch house. The wires connected to the wooden posts that were along each side of the dirt path bounced up and down as Clementine sped down the path. Dirt and dust picked up as Clementine's boots kicked it up. Clementine stumbled as she went too fast and nearly fell. "AJ!" Clementine stopped in her tracks as she scanned the area surrounding the McCarroll Ranch.

On the dirt to the left of Clementine, a p228 pistol laid. Clementine walked slowly towards the gun, searching around for any signs of walkers, coywolves, or anybody that dared to fuck with her. Behind the pistol, a massive green tractor stood. Four giant jet-black tires surrounded the yellow rims to make the wheels for the tractor. The windows were tinted black and Clementine could barely make out a figure that sat in the driver's seat of the cab.

"They probably got killed just like everyone else." Clementine kneeled down to pick up the pistol she had walked towards. As Clementine analyzed the pistol, it was obvious it belonged to her. Bite marks were lined across the slide of the pistol and around the barrel. Blood smeared the muzzle and dirt wrapped the entire pistol. The whole scenario played on her mind.

Clementine fell on the floor, stabbed by the coywolf's many sharp claws, like getting stabbed by multiple knives. Even now the pain was still there. Clementine lightly tapped just a little lower than her left shoulder and hissed as a sharp pain coursed through her shoulder.

The coywolf grabbed the pistol with its razer sharp teeth and held on with ease as Clementine held on with all her might. The coywolf snatched the pistol and threw it far away from them. But something was wrong.

Clementine shook her head and got the images out of her head as she stared down at where the pistol had laid before she picked it up. Back when Clementine lost the pistol, the coywolf on top of her grabbed it and threw it away from her. But what confused Clementine was that where the pistol landed there was also a coywolf's dead body, one that she had killed herself.

"I know I killed one of those stupid wolves. I know I did. But where the hell is its body?" Clementine walked away from the place where her pistol once laid and searched around for where the Coywolf's body was. Clementine circled around the emerald green tractor and stared at its massive wheels for any sign of a coywolf. But to Clementine's dismay, there was no body, there was no trail, and most importantly there was no coywolf.

"I killed a wolf, right? I swear I killed one, I swear I did, but-"

The sound of wood creaking made Clementine quickly grab her p228 and she turned around to aim her pistol towards the entrance of the McCarroll Ranch house. A zombified man slowly limped down the stairs but took a stumble and fell to the dirt floor. The walker raised its hands towards Clementine as it slowly crawled towards her.

The sound of running footsteps made Clementine quickly turn her head and raise her pistol towards what was behind her. "Woah Woah Clem stop! It's me, Gabe!"

Clementine shook her head and sighed as she slowly lowered her gun and put it away. "Why did you run over here Gabe?" Clementine walked towards the crawling walker as she took out her survival knife from her side and gripped it firmly in a reverse position with her right hand. "I didn't want you to come here by yourself."

Clementine reached the crawling walker who stared at her with it's cold, pure white eyes. It's eyes empty, without fear, without emotion, without life. Just an empty an endless abyss of whiteness. "I can-" Clementine stomped on the walkers back and crushed its back. The walker raised its head instantly towards the sky and Clementine swung her knife with all her might towards its head. The blade of Clementine's knife forced itself into the walker's skull and punctured its brain as its head slammed back down to the dirt floor. "-Take care of myself."

"Yeah, I can tell." Clementine ripped out the bloody knife from the walker's pale skinned head and pulled it towards her pants as she wiped the dripping deep red blood off of the blade. "So why did you run after me?"

"I'd rather be with you than with Javi and the others." Clementine put her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrows as Gabe smiled at her. "Alright dork, let's head on inside." Clementine finished wiping the blood off the blade of her survival knife and put it back in its holster. "After you." Clementine gave Gabe a slight shove as she walked past him and towards the entrance of the McCarroll Ranch house.

The wooden stairs creaked and slightly sank with each step Clementine took up the broken stairs of the even more dilapidated ranch house. As Clementine got to the top of the wooden staircase she turned her head to stare at the wooden rocking patio chair that was painted red. Only that that paint had a mysterious smell to it. A scent of something metallic. It smelled this way because it wasn't paint at all. In fact it was instead, painted with blood of the very victim that sat on the rocking chair now. Its lifeless body sat on the rocking chair and didn't move a single muscle. It instead just stared at something it once was, a human. A living human with eyes just as cold as it's dead self. Not only of a human being but of a little girl of all things. A girl that had been through hell and back and still survived. Not like the dead man that sat before the very eyes of that little girl.

Clementine stared at the walker's one pure white eye and the other bullet filled eye as they both began what would've been an endless staring contest for her opponent had it not been for Gabe. "Holy shit." Gabe held up his hands and covered his mouth and nose as he stared in horror at the walker that sat on the deep red rocking chair. "What the hell happened to him?"

"I don't know Gabe. This is how I found him when I first got here." Clementine crossed her arms as she stared in anger at the upper body of the victim of the brutal attack that killed him along with everyone else in the McCarroll Ranch house. "It smells terrible. You don't smell that?" Gabe stared at Clementine, who didn't cover her nose to block the terrible metallic scent and instead acted completely normal. "Yeah, I do. I'm just used to it." Clementine walked out of the front porch and entered the McCarroll Ranch House. As Clementine entered, her boots crunched the glass on the hardwood floor. Clementine took a glance at the inside of the run-down structure and regretted her decision to enter instantly.

Inside of the McCarroll Ranch house, the dead carcasses were not where they once were. When Clementine went not that long ago, the bodies of dead New Frontier members were all over the place. Some sat on broken chairs while others leaned against the wooden walls and one even laid on the windowsill and its upper body was out of the broken window.

But now, now their bodies were all neatly lined up against the old white oak wooden wall opposite of the broken windows to Clementine's right. Their bodies were each side by side, their guts ripped out of their stomachs and laid in a pile in front of them, completely ripped to shreds; their torsos and trousers ripped with deep red blood that seeped out of each slit of their clothes, their necks slashed and a deep slash engraved from the bottom of their left chin and in a diagonal sort of line all the way to their right shoulder. As well as a bullet hole that took the place of their left eyeball.

Gabe entered the room and almost immediately raised his hands to cover his open mouth and nose. "Holy shit!" Clementine felt the absolute shock in Gabe as his muffled words went out of his covered mouth. "Who the hell could've done this?!" Clementine shrugged as she turned away from the shocked fourteen-year-old boy and towards the line of deceased bodies that lined the wooden wall in front of them. "I don't know. But whoever it was, they're gonna pay for what they did."

Clementine walked away from the terrified teen boy and stood in front of one of the many cadavers that sat upright against the oak wood wall. Clementine scanned the body of one of the deceased New Frontier members and stared at their pure white eyes.

 _Why would they move their bodies like this? Like as if they were toys? Whoever these guys are, they're seriously fucked up._

Clementine turned her head to face the rest of the line of bodies and for some reason, there was one body, different from the rest. The man's head was face down and the charcoal gray beanie covering the top of his head faced forward unlike the others, who stared forward with their lifeless white eyes. Clementine walked towards the mysterious body that was different from the rest and stood in front of it. Clementine placed her right hand underneath the man's chin and the slight sharpness of the man's beard prickled her hand. Clementine raised the man's chin and let go almost immediately as she jumped away from the body.

 _Holy shit! It's the guy that was here the last time I was here! He was the only one alive out of everyone else. What did they do to him?_

"Clem, are you okay?" Clementine turned to face Gabe who raised his eyebrow towards her. "Uhh, yeah, yeah I'm fine." Gabe walked over to Clementine and they both stared at the man who endured so much to his entire body. Clementine raised the man's chin once again and a cold chill went throughout her body as she stared at the man's tortured face. The man's face was clawed and scratched all over. Deep cuts were spread throughout all of his face and not only was his left eye shut with a bullet, so was his right. "Jeez. You saw all of this when you were here?"

"Mostly all of it. When I was here all these bodies were all over the place. Now they're all sitting down here." Clementine shook her head at the thought of that.

What kind of sick person could do something like this?

"That's seriously messed up. Why move dead bodies? Why make them sit next to each other?" Gabe put his right hand on his forehead and shook his head. "It gets worse. This man was alive when I was here." Gabe lowered his hand from his forehead and sighed as he stared at the man's destroyed face. "He told me about the Brotherhood and how they were ruthless and that their leader was like the devil."

"The devil? They're both definitely alike. Maybe even worse." Clementine nodded her head slowly in agreement as she continued to stare at the line of cadavers.

 _Clem…_

Clementine's eyes widened as AJ's voice filled her ears. Clementine searched the room with her eyes but she couldn't find her little goofball anywhere.

 _Clem…_

The voice was soft like a whisper, yet it was so clear, like as if AJ was right next to her and whispered in her right ear. Clementine turned to her right where the end of the line of dead bodies was and further ahead, the wooden wall that signified the end of the McCarroll Ranch house. Clementine turned her attention away from the wall and back to the man that was brutally attacked.

 _Clem…_

Clementine turned to face to her right again and nearly gasped as she held her hands to her mouth. AJ sat on the wooden floor with half of a broken blue crayon, the other half was on a piece of loose leaf paper. Clementine couldn't believe what was in front of her and shook her head to find out if it was really real. Clementine stopped shaking her head and nearly gasped again as the monster she knew all too well stood tall in AJ's place, it's mouth covered in blood. The coywolf snarled and blood dripped from its red teeth and landed on the paper AJ had been drawing on.

"Clem are you okay?" A hand landed on Clementine's left shoulder and she turned around towards Gabe who was clearly concerned. "Uhh, yeah I'm, I'm fine." Clementine turned towards the end of the McCarroll Ranch House and there was no coywolf, no drawing, and more importantly, no AJ. "Uhh, Gabe, can you be lookout just to make sure that nobody comes towards us? I'm kinda nervous with those wolves coming back here."

"Uhh, yeah sure. What are you gonna do?" Clementine faced Gabe as he raised an eyebrow towards her. "I'm gonna look around and see if I can find out where they went with AJ."

"You don't need any help?" Clementine shook her head as she slowly walked away from Gabe. "I'll be fine. Just let me know if you see anything." The symphony of pieces of glass crunched by Clementine's boot followed her as she walked towards the end of the low-roofed McCarroll Ranch House. Clementine stared at each body lined up next to each other. Each one of their As Clementine stopped, so did the song of the crunching glass as she stood in front of the wooden backend wall.

Clementine turned to her left and there sat AJ once again, this time drawing on the wooden walls with a blue piece of chalk, next to the door that had Clementine's name on it. Clementine shook her head and once again, AJ disappeared. Clementine wasn't surprised that AJ disappeared and she was more surprised how there wasn't a coywolf in his place.

Clementine walked down the hall and the sound of glass left under her boot quieted down as she now longer stepped on broken glass.

Clementine followed the green and blue chalk lines that spiraled against each other down the wooden wall. Clementine ran her left hand against the hard and cold white oak wood wall like she did when she was there not that long ago. Clementine's fingertips turned into a mix of bluish-green as she abruptly stopped the lines on their trek down the hall. Clementine moved her left hand up and down the wall like the chalk lines did. As Clementine got to the entrance of the room, she wiped off her colored fingertips on her pants.

The door to the room was wide open and in the middle of the wooden door was Clem written in pink chalk, like it was when Clementine herself was here. Clementine's name was circled with the same blue and green chalk that was on the wall outside of the very room. The wooden door had a slight hole in it because Clementine busted it open with her boot when she thought AJ was behind the door. But she was wrong, she was very wrong.

Clementine walked into the dimly lit room and walked towards the only window that wasn't broken in the entire ranch house. Clementine searched around for the rest of the group but couldn't find them.

 _Why are they taking so long? We weren't that far away from the McCarroll Ranch, they should be here by now…_

Clementine shook her head and turned towards the wooden wall that had the dreaded message that was left for her. But something happened to the message. The entire blue chalk written message was crossed off. At the bottom of the message, however, there was a new message, this time written from a green chalk.

 _Clementine, you're so predictable. Hope you like running -D_

Clementine's eyes widened as she read the last word. Fear and anger built up inside of her. Hatred and anger coursed through her veins. Clementine grabbed her knife from its holster and slammed it into a small wooden round table. "I'm gonna fucking kill you!"

"Clementine!" Clementine turned around quickly and pulled out her pistol, the muzzle aimed towards the entrance of the room. "Do you see something?!" The window behind Clementine shattered without warning. Clementine turned around and in front of her a coywolf stood and stared at her with its amber eyes filled with the hunger for blood. It's gray and white ears pointed upwards and its jet-black nose pointed towards Clementine.

Clementine pulled the trigger but it was too late. The coywolf jumped on top of Clementine and made her miss her shot. The bullet flew into the roof and small pieces of wood, as well as dust, came down. Clementine's eyes itched as the some of the debris got into them. The coywolf's claws stabbed Clementine's chest and stomach. Each claw was like a small knife being pushed into her body. Clementine groaned in pain as the sharp pains were throughout her body.

The coywolf grabbed the pistol with it's sharp, mostly yellow and red stained teeth, and pulled with a force no match for the injured Clementine. The coywolf threw the pistol out of the room and clawed at the right side of her body, the same spot that the other coywolf clawed not that long ago. Clementine screamed as her skin was ripped by the small knives the coywolf had for claws. Tears dripped down Clementine's face as the coywolf snarled at her.

 _Come on Clementine, you can push this stupid wolf off of you, come on!_

Clementine's adrenaline skyrocketed and coursed through her entire body. Clementine yelled at the top of her lungs as she pushed the coywolf with all her might. The coywolf fell of off Clementine and landed on its side. Clementine, despite the pain, got up as fast as she could. The place where the coywolf had stabbed was warm and wet with blood that dripped down from her wound. Clementine limped towards the wooden table and fell but caught herself by holding onto the side of the table. Clementine stared at the handle of the knife she stuck into the table and reached for it. Clementine wrapped her right hand around the handle and pulled on it but it didn't budge.

"Come on!" Clementine pulled the knife handle with all her might and ripped it out of the wooden table. The momentum, however, made her fall back towards the ground and she landed on her injured arm. "Fuck!" The coywolf jumped on top of Clementine and stabbed her once again with its claws. "Fuck you!" Clementine held onto the knife handle in a reverse position and swung it towards the coywolf's right eye. But as she swung the knife to her right, the coywolf bit her right arm with all its might.

"Fuck! Fuck!" Blood gushed out of the coywolf's mouth and dripped down her right arm and onto her red tailcoat blazer shrug. The blade of the knife was only inches away from the coywolf's right eye. Clementine pushed the knife as hard as she could but as she continued to push, the coywolf bit down harder. The coywolf's amber eyes widened as it stared at the blade that neared its eye. "Fuck!" Clementine's right arm went limp and she let go of her survival knife. The coywolf's bite strengthened and Clementine tried to raise her left hand to punch it. But as Clementine got closer and closer, the coywolf's bite got worse and worse.

"Hey!" The coywolf raised its head and its eyes widened as it stared at the source of the voice. Clementine tried to find the source of the voice but she couldn't move her head to get a clear view. "Come on Echo, let her go!" The coywolf didn't listen and instead, stared at Clementine with it's cold and angry amber eyes. "Hey! Let her go Echo!" The footsteps of the man yelling at the coywolf vibrated the wooden floors and shook Clementine's head. "Echo!"

Clementine screamed as the coywolf strengthened its grip on her arm one more time before it let go. The coywolf snarled at Clementine as it walked away from her. Clementine stared at her right arm and nearly fainted as she stared at the horrific sight in front of her. A massive cut ran across her entire forearm and blood gushed out of it. A chill ran down Clementine's entire body as she stared at it in complete horror. Clementine hissed as she slightly touched the massive would with her pointer finger. A tear fell from Clementine's face and landed in the cut, making her shake her arm as a sharp pain went through her whole arm. "Get up!"

"I… I can't." Clementine choked on her own words as her eyes watered and tears fell from them. "Come on get up!" The man reloaded his gun and aimed it towards Clementine's eyes as he stood over her. "I don't ask twice."

Clementine groaned as she slowly raised herself by pushing off the ground with her left hand. Clementine's entire body shook and weakened as she tried her hardest to stand up. Her left arm shook rapidly against the wood floor as she slowly got up. But Clementine couldn't handle the sharp pain coming from her chest and stomach and the grueling pain from her right arm and her left arm gave out. "Fuck!"

The man sighed as he pulled something out of his pocket with his left hand. The man clicked a button and a short burst of static followed. "Hey, guys can you bring some people in to take someone? Echo fucked her up pretty good."

"Yeah, we're sending people now." The short burst of static came again and the man lowered his walkie-talkie as he stared down at the seriously injured girl. "Echo fucked you up real good." The man chuckled as he shook his head. "I haven't seen her do that to anybody since… Man, I can't even remember. Last time that happened to someone, they died on the spot." The wooden floorboards underneath Clementine's head vibrated as some more people walked into the room. "God damn, she got fucked up!"

"Yeah, I know. Now get her up." Someone walked past Clementine's weakened body and stood at her feet. The silhouette of a woman appeared as she blocked the sunlight entering the broken window. Clementine winced as the woman grabbed her feet and held them up. Someone from behind Clementine's head breathed heavily on her face as they put their arms underneath her's. The person behind Clementine raised their arms and Clementine groaned as both of the people holding her carried her out of the room. The floorboards creaked and the two people that carried Clementine groaned as they carried her. The wound on the right side of Clementine's body was boiling hot and stung all over. "Clementine!"

Clementine turned her head slightly to her left and stared in horror at Gabe, who was on the ground, tackled by another coywolf, his shirt ripped and blood all over the right side of his blue jacket and his white undershirt. "Gabe." Clementine tried to yell out towards Gabe but her body just couldn't allow her to. The pain all over her body was just too much. The sound of the glass that crunched on the floor returned as they walked Clementine out of the McCarroll Ranch House.

Clementine groaned as the sunlight hit her eyes. Clementine tried to cover her eyes with her left arm but couldn't because the person carrying her held onto both of her arms. "Clementine!" Clementine turned her head to find that Javi was outside, running towards her. Someone, Clementine didn't know ran towards Javi and pushed him to the ground. Dust and dirt went into the air as Javi hit the ground. Javi stared at Clementine as they carried her towards the rest of the group. "What did they do to you?!" Clementine could only answer with a groan as they continued to carry her. "You fucking monsters!" The man that pushed Javi to the ground put his boot on Javi's skull and lightly pressed down on it. "Shut the fuck up!" Javi groaned as the man twisted his boot as he continued to press down on Javi's face. The people that carried Clementine out of the McCarroll Ranch House stopped walking and slowly lowered her. Clementine groaned as they laid her body on the dirt floor of the McCarroll Ranch.

"Well, there she is! The badass herself, Clementine!" Clementine continued her moans and groans as she turned her head to try to find who spoke towards her. "Well, maybe not so badass…" The women that carried Clementine out of the room lifted her up and made her get down on her knees. "No please." Clementine tried to stop them but she couldn't and the terrible pain returned stronger than ever. Clementine fell to the floor and bungled up her fists and tried to find who stood in front of her. Clementine covered the top of her eyes with her left hand as she stared at the man. "Is everyone here?" Two other men in black clothing dragged Javi and Gabe towards them. "I'm gonna kill you guys!" The man that dragged Javi stopped and kicked him in the stomach. "Shut the hell up!"

"Clem, what did they do to you?" Clementine turned to her left and stared at Kate who was clearly worried. "The… the.. Wolves. They…" Clementine tried to speak but couldn't. Clementine was too traumatized by the coywolf's attack on her. "Well it looks like everyone's here, so let's get this show on the road shall we?" Clementine searched the area with her eyes and stared in horror at her whole group as they were on their knees, in a straight line spread apart, with people behind them with AK-47's aimed at their heads. Along with plenty of other people with guns standing a fair bit away from the one man in front of them all. "My name is Dautan."

Clementine stared at Dautan and nearly fainted. Dautan's head was covered with black medium frizzy and wavy hair. Dautan had some stubble underneath his chin and around his lips. A giant scar came from the left side of his forehead, all the way to the bottom of his left amber colored eye, which cut some of his eyebrow off. Another massive scar went from the right side of his nose, all the way to the bottom of his lip. Dautan smiled and his teeth were white with just a hint of yellow on them.

"This, this is the Brotherhood!" Dautan stretched out both of his arms and everyone yelled and raised their guns in response. "The most ruthless, strongest, and dare I say, which I do, the most badass group in the world!" Everyone yelled and pumped their guns into the air in agreement. Dautan laughed as he lowered his arms and clapped them together. "So… Clementine." Dautan with both of his hands together tilted them towards the injured little girl. "I know you've already met my coywolves. But I don't think I properly introduced you to them."

Dautan put his pointer and middle finger into his mouth and whistled. Almost instantly, two coywolves ran out from the inside of the McCarroll Ranch house, along with two other ones that came from the fields of the ranch surrounding them. The two gray coywolves from the ranch house ran towards Dautan and stood next to him, one on each side. Then the two other coywolves sprinted from the tall green and yellow grass and stood next to the other coywolves. All four of them all stared at Clementine with their teeth bloody and decayed, their amber eyes filled with hate, their jet-black noses that smelled blood, and their pointed ears that heard the slightest of screams and listened to the man in between them. Dautan pointed to each one as he revealed their names. "We have Ghost, Tank, Edge, and, I know you already met this little rascal today, Echo. She's the fiercest out of all of them." Dautan petted Echo's head and she licked her bloody mouth as she stared at Clementine.

"Now, you guys are probably saying, oh Dautan what did we ever do to deserve this?" Dautan walked away from the coywolves and towards Javi and stood in front of him. Javi raised his head as he stared hard at Dautan. "You guys took down the New Frontier, the group that I got supplies from. Now I will admit, those little brand wearing assholes were, well, assholes." Everyone that was a part of the Brotherhood laughed and Dautan himself couldn't help but crack a smile. Dautan kneeled and put his face right up to Javi's.

"But they had some good shit. Good shit that I apparently, haven't received this week. Then I heard that you and your little group went and took the New Frontier down. That's not cool man, not cool. You stole the shit that they stole for me and that was not a good decision." Dautan shook his head as he and Javi both stared at each without saying a word. Dautan nodded his head as he stood up and stared down at Javi. "Not a good decision at all." Dautan walked away from Javi and went towards Clementine, who held onto her right bleeding arm with her left hand. "Then Clementine had to go and make things worse." Clementine turned her attention away from her injured arm and stared up at the man that towered over her. "One of my coywolves was killed. Killed by a bullet to the eye. Huh... just like everyone else in that ranch house." Dautan put his right hand over his chin and scratched his stubble beard. "One of my coywolves died... one of mine, I mean one of our, brothers. I cannot let that stand."

Members of the Brotherhood nodded their heads and so did Dautan. "No, no I can't. If you kill one of us, we can't just let that slide. You understand right, Clementine?" Clementine squinted her eyes and didn't say a word as she stared at Dautan who smiled back at her. "I need an eye for an eye." Clementine's heart shattered as all the Brotherhood members cheered. Dautan walked away from Clementine and stood next to his coywolves. "No please, there must be something we can do to make it up to you!" Eleanor pleaded towards Dautan and he smiled. "Why yes, there is something you can do. You can let me kill one of you." Everyone cheered as Eleanor put her head down and cried.

"But there's just one problem." Everyone stopped their cheering immediately as Dautan scratched his head. "Who do I kill?" Clementine stared at the rest of her group and everyone had the same reaction. They all had tears in their eyes and their heads down and shaken.

 _Please don't kill me, oh god please don't kill me!_

Everyone screamed out names like ballboy, wolf girl, Clementine, doctor, ballgirl, but Dautan still continued to scratch his head as he tried to come to a decision. Dautan raised his left hand in the air and made it into a fist. All the yelling and screaming stopped and Dautan lowered his fist. "I just can't decide. So… I'll let the wolves decide." Everyone cheered and raised their guns and fists in the air. Dautan patted one of the coywolves on their back and it walked away from Dautan and towards the line of people that kneeled before it. The coywolf searched around for its victim as it walked closer to the line of people.

 _Please please don't pick me._

The coywolf stopped in its tracks and stared towards Clementine. The coywolf snarled and Clementine's heart sank as the coywolf walked towards her. Dautan patted another coywolf and they walked towards the line of victims in front of them. The coywolf started to walk towards Clementine but then suddenly, it changed its mind and walked towards Gabe. "No, not Gabe!" Javi tried to get up and stop the coywolf but the man behind him pushed him to the floor. The coywolf stared at Javi as it passed him and stood in front of Gabe.

 _No not Gabe!_

Clementine stared at the coywolf in front of her. The coywolf tilted its head to the left, like as if it was analyzing her. "Alright next!" Another coywolf walked away from Dautan and towards Clementine's group. The terrifying creature seemed to be walking towards Javi but then went past him and towards Gabe. "God damn it." The man behind Javi shook his head, clearly wanting Javi to die. Tears started to fall down Gabe's face as the coywolf joined the other one in front of him. "Last one, who's it gonna be?!" The coywolf for some reason walked really slow, almost like it wanted to build suspense.

But Clementine stared at the coywolf's face and it was the coywolf that bit her in the arm and scratched the right side of her body.

 _Oh no. There's no way it's not gonna pick me._

As Clementine stared at the coywolf, it made its decision and walked towards her. "Oh, would you look at that, we have a tie!" All the coywolves turned away from their choices and stared at their leader. "Oh but I know how to break that tie." Dautan put his two fingers into his mouth and whistled as loud as he could. For a moment, nothing happened. But then a howl unlike any other Clementine had ever heard before, echoed through the air. A giant blur of gray ran towards them through the tall grass at a pace much faster than the coywolves had. Clementine stared in awe as a massive gray wolf walked out of the tall grass and searched around with it's golden brown eyes. The gray wolf's body was a mixture of brown, black, and white fur, different from the coywolves who just had gray and white fur. It had to be at least three times bigger than the coywolves and the thought of that scared Clementine to death.

Dautan walked over to the terrifying creature and whispered in its ear, almost like it wasn't even a monster at all. Dautan pulled away and pointed towards the group that kneeled before it. The gray wolf started walking and it already seemed to be walking towards Clementine.

 _No Get away from me!_

"No not Clementine!" The gray wolf stopped walking towards Clementine and stared at Gabe, who yelled out. The man behind Gabe hit him with the side of his assault rifle and he fell to the floor. "No, don't pick Clementine!" Everyone stayed silent as the gray wolf continued to stare at Gabe. Dautan smiled as he scratched his chin and stared at the drama that played before him. The gray wolf stared at Clementine and then walked away from her. Instead of going towrds Clementine, the colossal wolf made its way towards Gabe.

"No not Gabe!" Kate got up and tried to run towards Gabe. One of the coywolves in front of Clementine ran towards Kate and jumped on top of her. Kate screamed as the coywolf clawed at her chest and stomach, just as they did to Clementine. The grey wolf took a quick glance at Kate before it continued towards Gabe. Javi stopped kneeling and stood up to the wolf in front of him. "I'm not afraid of you." The gray wolf walked towards Javi and snarled at him as the man behind Javi pushed him to the ground. The gray wolf continued it's walk towards Gabe and stood in front of it, cementing its decision.

Everyone remained silent as Dautan waved Gabe over to him. Two people grabbed Gabe by each arm and dragged him towards Dautan. "No stop please!" Tears ran down Gabe's face and he sobbed more than he ever had in his life.

They dropped Gabe to the floor and Dautan grabbed the back of Gabe's jacket and pulled him up. Gabe groaned as Dautan forced him to stare at his group. "You know, it's sad things had to go like this. But hey, we can all learn from this and carry on. Make sure you don't make the same mistake twice. Any last words Gabe?" Dautan slammed Gabe to the ground and his face hit the dirt hard. Dautan grabbed the back of Gabe's jacket and raised his head once again. "Clementine..."

Clementine raised her head from her wounded arm and stared at Gabe, who stared back at her. "I've always liked you, Clementine, more... more than a friend. I… I love you." Clementine's eyes widened and tears started to fall down her face and blinded her vision. Dautan let go of Gabe's jacket and let him fall to the floor. "Oh shit." Dautan zipped open his black leather jacket and pulled out an axe. Dautan aimed the bit at Gabe. "So he.." Dautan took the bit away from Gabe and aimed it at Clementine. "..Loves you." Dautan laughed as he shook his head. "Oh you can't write this stuff man, you really can't." Dautan scratched his chin with the bit of his axe. "Oh, I've got an idea." Dutan swung his axe slightly towards Clementine as he walked back to Gabe again. "So Clementine. We all know that this little troublemaker likes you, but I think he and all of us want to know the same thing... do you feel the same way?"

Gabe raised his head and stared at Clementine with tears in his eyes. Clementine's vision was blurred by tears and she wiped them off with her left hand that was filled with blood and sweat. "Well do you Clementine?"

"I uhhh… I." Dautan slammed Gabe into the ground and raised his ax into the air. "No!" Dautan swung his ax downward and it slammed into Gabe's head. The bit went into his brain and blood gushed out as Dautan moved the ax around Gabe's head. Gabe reached out his hand towards Clementine as Dautan ripped out his axe and raised it once again. "I guess he'll never know the answer!"

Clementine's vision started to move around violently, like as if she was spinning around. Dautan slammed his axe once again into Gabe's head and his hand fell to the floor. Dautan took out the axe and continued to swing at Gabe's head over and over and over and over again, each blow splattering more blood on Dautan's black leather jacket and all over the dirt floor. After delivering at least twenty blows to Gabe's head, he wasn't recognizable anymore. Where his head should've been, was now just a pile filled with blood and brains. Dautan raised his axe and stared at the blood that dripped from it. Dautan chuckled as he stared at the murder weapon.

Dautan put his two fingers from his unused hand and whistled once again. All the coywolves and the enormous grey wolf ran towards Gabe's dead body and had a feast. They all crowded his body and fought each other for each piece they wanted to eat next. Two coywolves had a piece of Gabe's arm and they played tug of war with it. The other wolves kept fighting and pushing each other for each piece and blood gushed everywhere.

Clementine suddenly fell to the floor and her eyes started to close as she began to fade away from her injury. Out of the corner of Clementine's eye, Javi ran towards Dautan and swung his fist towards him. Dautan dodged the punch and he hit Javi's back with the handle of his axe. Javi fell to the floor and Clementine's eyes closed as she fainted.


	4. Unwelcomed Guests

A/N: Hello Everyone! I would like to apologize for this chapter taking so long. The past couple of days I've been really sick and a whole lot of other things unexpectedly came along but I'll talk about that later. For now, I would like to say thank you for tuning in and checking out the fourth chapter for Days of the Dead. I'm very happy with all the kind words you guys have left for me and I really really appreciate it. I saw that this story is also really close to 1k views as this is being posted, which is insane to me. Thank you all for checking out my stories man, seriously. When I wrote my first fanfic exactly one year ago, I wrote it only for myself and didn't think anybody would even care to read anything from me.

But now exactly one year later, I went from being a little writer on an iPhone to a dedicated writer with a laptop on an amazing site with fantastic people around me. I never thought any of this would ever happen to me but I'm glad it did. I'm glad I wrote that story on my phone because if I didn't, I wouldn't have met the wonderful people I know today. The people that have helped me with my writing and gave me advice, the people that became my friend, the people I talk to on a pretty much daily basis, the people that supported me when I was at my worst, the amazing reviews you guys have left, and the favs and follows you guys have given me. I seriously take all of it for granted and I really shouldn't. All of this happened because of that one choice I made. The choice to write my first fanfic. Thank you guys, really, for everything. I'm so very grateful.

Anyway as I previously stated, I took a month to upload this chapter, as well as others in the past, which is completely unacceptable to you the reader, and to me. You guys have continued to support my story despite the uploads being really slow, and I'm thankful that you guys have stuck around. So I'm announcing that from now on, the chapters for Days of the Dead will now become shorter and be posted more often. I feel that this will be good for both the reader and for me. You guys shouldn't have to wait a whole month just to see a chapter from me. I should be posting chapters often and give you guys the chapters when you want them. That being said, however, I will need to take a break from writing this story to make a proper schedule, make chapter word lengths, etc. I know that I just said that I needed to post them sooner but I need to come up with all of this before I start posting more often. I hope you guys can understand and I hope you guys are happy with my decision.

Anyway, enough of me rambling on. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and I wish you all very happy holidays. If you want to talk with me about this story and my decision, or just anything in general, feel free to pm me. Anyways, thanks again for checking out this chapter and I'll see all of you guys later.

 _Chapter 4_

 _Unwelcomed Guests_

 _The more sin is rationalized, the greater the possibility of destruction by the devil's wolves._

 _-Joseph B. Wirthlin_

* * *

Darkness towered over Clementine as she stood in the middle of the forest, by herself. The heavy rain fell from the cloudy sky like bombs. Each drop of rain like a flick of two fingers on her body. Clementine's vision suffered as the grey mist swarmed the area and made it nearly impossible to search for anything. Clementine still walked deeper into the forest, despite being blinded by the fog.

The wind picked up and made its own tune which included the sway of leaves, the crunch of the branches Clementine stepped on, and the rain that poured down without remorse. The scent of wet soil and grass captivated Clementine's nostrils as the rain continued to get stronger. The wet moisture in the air was like as if Clementine was in a sauna, despite the heavy and cold breeze which made her red tailcoat blazer shrug go wild and flap around.

The ground clouds thankfully began to fade away as Clementine continued her now more visible journey. But the pouring rain strengthened which made every raindrop sting and the winds increased, which made Clementine struggle to continue her trek forwards. Clementine stared in front of her in horror as a pair of golden brown eyes stared at her. Clementine stopped walking and stared at the cold pair of eyes. The winds picked up and Clementine's blue and white baseball cap flew away.

"No my hat!" The hat Clementine had cared so much about flew away from her and went towards the pair of mysterious eyes. The menacing eyes jumped and then landed as the hat disappeared. Clementine slowly walked towards the pair of eyes, not only because she was scared, but also because of the winds that pushed her back. Clementine's hair moved sporadically as she continued her push towards the pair of cold eyes. But the winds picked up even more and Clementine could continue no longer. Clementine fell to the floor and the scent of clean and wet grass along with a hint of dirt filled her nostril. Clementine raised her head slightly and faced the pair of eyes that now towered over her.

They seemed to be more aggressive now, like as if they absolutely despised the site laid in front of them. The winds picked up and forced the fog to slowly disappear and the silhouette of some kind of creature revealed itself along with the bill of the baseball cap in the grasp of its razor-sharp teeth. "Give the hat back!" Clementine's words spilled out not the way she intended and instead of ordering it back, she begged for it.

The creature spat out the baseball cap and dropped it in front of Clementine's eyes. Saliva and blood covered the blue bill of the hat and Clementine shuddered at the sight. "What are you?" Clementine raised her head as she stared at the pair of eyes. The creature slowly walked over towards the downed little girl, the strong winds not even making it stumble. It's fur moved around quickly and sporadically.

The fog was now barely visible and Clementine could clearly see the monster before her. A massive gray wolf stood high and mighty above Clementine and stared at her in disappointment. "Oh no. Please… Please…" Clementine slowly sat up as the winds barreled down on her. Clementine held up both of her hands in surrender and the gray wolf just continued to stare, without moving a single muscle. "What do you want from me?!"

The gray wolf tilted its head slightly to the right and its pointed ears raised. "What do you want?" The gray wolf slowly walked towards Clementine and stood right in front of her face. The stench of blood slapped Clementine across the face as the gray wolf breathed slightly. The gray wolf leaned its head towards Clementine and licked her face. The rigid tongue tickled Clementine's left cheek and her eyes widened.

"What?" The gray wolf stopped licking Clementine's face and stared at her. "Why are you doing this? Don't you hate me?"

The gray wolf shook its head side to side and out of the corner of Clementine's eyes, four other coywolves appeared, ready to attack. They leaned forward slightly and bent their legs towards Clementine. Their bloody teeth vibrated and their heads slightly shook. A whistle echoed through the air and all of the wolves jumped towards Clementine. All of them, except the gray wolf.

* * *

Clementine shot straight up and a sharp pain went throughout her body. "Ahhhh!" Clementine motioned her left arm towards the right side of her body and stared down at her wounds. But something caught her eye. Clementine stared at her arms, her left a little bit higher than her right as she held onto her wound. Clementine's forearms now had a large bite mark that ran across them both.

"Oh no." The new battle scar on Clementine's right arm was notably bigger than the bite she received from that dog a while back. Clementine groaned as she let go of the right side of her body. Clementine lightly touched the wound on her right arm and hissed as the wound reacted with a sharp pain. Clementine quickly jumped in her bed and regretted her decision as the right side of her body became tight and tense. Clementine groaned and leaned up against the wall behind her pillow.

 _Why me… Why did this have to happen to me? Please just make it stop… Please…_

Tears escaped Clementine's watery eyes and dripped down her cold and sweaty face. Clementine's vision blurred and she couldn't make out anything in the already dark room she sat in. But something caught Clementine's eye. A pair of orbs stared at Clementine's face. Clementine jumped in her bed and the grueling pain returned. "Please stop! Stop it!" The orbs disappeared into the darkness and Clementine let out a slight sigh.

 _Thank you._

The orbs suddenly returned and this time, there were pupils in each orb. The pair of eyes were golden brown and its jet black pupils got bigger. "Get the fuck away from me! Get away!" The pair of eyes got closer and closer to Clementine's bed, with each step Clementine jumped back and the pain continued to spread itself. "Get the fuck away from me! Fuck you!" Clementine's heart skipped a beat as the giant metal door to Clementine's right swung open. A slight breeze hit Clementine's face, just like the strong winds that took her down in her dream not too long ago.

Clementine's eyes burned as the lights of the dark room came alive. "Clem! What's going on?!" Clementine opened her eyes slightly towards the source of the voice and it was none other than Javi. Clementine wiped the tears out of her eyes to make sure it was her friend and it was indeed. "Clementine, you alright?" Javi ran towards Clementine and placed his hands on her shoulder. Clementine groaned as Javi's hands pressed down on the wound on her right shoulder. "Oh shit! Sorry!"

Javi let go of Clementine and held his hands slightly above her shoulder. "Clementine is everything alright?" Clementine raised her head and stared past Javi's hand and towards where the pair of golden brown eyes once were. Now nothing was there except a black swiveling chair and behind it, another chair with Clementine's ripped and bloody red tailcoat blazer shrug. Clementine gasped as nothing was there and Javi turned his head towards nothing. "What? Is someone here?" Clementine nodded her head and Javi walked towards the area. Javi pushed the swivel chair out of his way as he searched the room. Javi opened the big cabinets that lined the floor but nothing was in there except the things you'd expect from a doctor. Things like syringes, medicine, bandages, etc. Javi shook his head as more time passed and still no sign of an intruder. "Clem what did you see?"

Clementine didn't say a word and stared blankly at the floor. Javi walked towards Clementine and kneeled in front of her, making her tower over him. "Clementine what did you see?" Clementine shook her head and a tear fell from her eye and landed on Javi's face. Javi's heart sank as he stared at his friend's distraught face. Clementine had been through so much, more than Javi could've ever imagined. Now everything with Dautan, the coywolves, and The Brotherhood seemed to be breaking her. Breaking her nearly to the point of giving up… nearly to the point of… ending it all.

Javi wiped the tear off of his left cheek and stared Clementine in the eye. "Clementine… I can't imagine what you're going through. But I need you to be strong. You're one of the bravest people I've ever met. We need your help if we're gonna take down Dautan and the Brotherhood." Clementine still didn't move her lips and kept them sealed. "We need your help, Clementine. I need your help. Gabe…" Clementine's eyes widened at the mention of Gabe's name. Gabe, the fourteen-year-old boy, killed way too soon. To make it worse, it was a way Gabe probably never imagined. An axe to the brain.

"If Gabe were here he would've wanted your help. Gabe's not here now but I know that if he was he would've wanted you to take Dautan down." Without warning, the big metal door Javi had entered through opened and another breeze of cold air blew towards Clementine's face, which made her shudder. Kate stared at Javi and Clementine with her eyes widened with pure terror and her mouth gasping for air. "Woah Kate what's going on?"

"It's them they're here!" Javi's mouth dropped and he rose up. "Who's here?" Before Kate could answer, a powerful howl echoed through the air and Clementine's heart dropped to her stomach. Javi and Kate ran towards the windows and pulled away the shutters to view what was outside. "Oh, shit there he is! And his fucking wolves too."

Clementine shuddered as she stared at the open metal door in front of her. But Clementine didn't shudder in fear, not anymore. Clementine shuddered in anger. Clementine bungled up her hands into fists and her head shook. Clementine breathed slowly and grinned evilly towards the door. Clementine was done with Dautan. She was done with everything.

 _I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch today._

* * *

"Come on guys, let me in! I just kicked my soccer ball over your fence on accident!" Suddenly, something flew into the air and went over the massive wall that surrounded Richmond. The object stopped its flight and landed on the ground in front of Eleanor. Eleanor kicked the object slightly and it rolled over to reveal the face of an undead man. "Oh dangit, I kicked another ball over your fence! Can you let me in so I can get it back?!"

"Fucking asshole," Eleanor whispered as Javi and Kate arrived next to her. "How's Clementine?" Javi shook his head in disapproval. "I have no idea. She wouldn't answer me and she started to see things. I think things are starting to get to her."

"Yeah, I can imagine. Clementine is still pretty young and getting attacked by wolves twice isn't normal when you're growing up." Javi nodded as he stared down at the head that laid on the ground. "Yeah. Look, I wanted to say thanks for bringing Clementine back to Richmond and for fixing me up."

"It's no big deal. Don't worry about it." Eleanor crossed her arms as she stared at Javi. "Yeah. Listen, I still don't think what you did a while back was the right thing to do but we have bigger things to deal with now."

"Hey! I can hear you guys in there, let me in!" Everyone stared at the massive door as Dautan began to hit it. As Dautan continued to bang on the massive metal door, Javi and Eleanor restarted their conversation. "I'm willing to put everything behind us so we can focus on Dautan. So, do you want to do the same?" Eleanor continued to cross her arms and gave Javi a mean look. But then Eleanor uncrossed her arms and nodded. Javi reached out his hand and Eleanor shook it as Dautan continued to bang on the door.

"Alright, playtime's over! If you don't open this goddamn door right now, I'm gonna bust this fucking door and let the walker's kill all of you! Then I'm gonna sit back and eat some popcorn as I watch you all get ripped to pieces and turn into walkers!"

"We can't let him do that Javi. We'll all die without the wall. We have to let him in, even though we don't want them in Richmond." Javi nodded his head and pointed at someone who stood at the control panel for the metal door. "Hey, open the door!" The man standing at the controls at first didn't seem too keen on opening the metal door but still did it anyway. The gears of the metal door grinded against each other and the massive door slowly rose. As the door went up, what was behind it was revealed. The paws of multiple wolves stood and in the middle of them were the black boots of their leader. There were many others who waited right behind them.

"Fucking took you guys long enough," Dautan commented as the massive metal wall rose. The coywolves ducked and went under the rising door at the same exact time as the rest of the Brotherhood waited for the wall to finish rising. The coywolves stared at Javi, Eleanor, and Kate as soon as they finished getting under the rising obstacle.

The gears stopped grinding against each other and the gateway to Richmond was now open. Dautan clapped his hands together and chuckled. "Oh this is gonna be fun, isn't it?" Dautan turned his head slightly to stare at the massive gray wolf to his right. The menacing creature didn't move a muscle and stared straight at the three people that stood in front of it. Perfectly still like a statue. "Oh if only you could talk." Dautan slowly caressed the brown and white fur on the gray wolf's neck while it still didn't move a muscle. "Well, let's go!"

Dautan tugged down on his black leather jacket softly as he led the small group of Brotherhood members into Richmond. The gray wolf stopped staying still and walked right along next to Dautan who had a big grin on his face. Dautan stopped in front of Javi and stared straight into Javi's chocolate brown eyes with his own cold gray eyes. "Javier Garcia, it's so good to see ya! How's your back? Don't know if you remember but while poor Gabe got the absolute shit beaten out of his head, you ran up to me and I.." Dautan held onto an imaginary bat and swung the handle of the axe downward as he clicked his tongue.

Javi stared straight at Dautan with anger in his eyes and didn't say a word as he let his hands tense up and turn into fists. "C'mon Javi, lighten up!" Dautan grinned as Kate grabbed onto Javi's fist and pulled on it. "Don't do it Javi. You'll only make things worse." Javi turned around and stared at Kate whose face was clearly depressed. "Smart girl. No wonder you guys have lasted so long." Javi relaxed his hands and turned to face Dautan. "Speaking of girls, where the hell is Clementine? I tell ya, these wolves love her to death. All they want to do is spend time with her."

"Clementine's in the nursing room, healing from her wounds." Eleanor lowered her head and stared at the ground as she revealed Clementine's location. Anger filled Javi's body. Javi just wanted to yell at Eleanor for giving away Clementine's location.

"Oh alright, I'll be sure to visit her along with these little devils." Dautan kneeled down and ran his left hand through the coywolf's soft gray and white fur. "Alright, let's stop all this chit-chat and get right down to business." Dautan stood up and stared directly at Javi. "Richmond? Richmond... Is now property of the Brotherhood." Dautan patted the back of the coywolf he caressed and it ran away from them and went deeper into Richmond. The other coywolves soon followed and ran throughout Richmond. The people of Richmond screamed and ran in terror as the menacing creatures explored the new territory. "Which means that your shit is my shit. But hey, I'm reasonable. You know, I'm a nice guy, so I won't be taking all your shit. You'll get ten percent of everything you've got."

"We're not giving you shit." Dautan opened his mouth slightly and stared at Eleanor who stood up to him. "Oh, you're not?" Dautan grabbed onto the silver zipper on his black leather jacket and pulled it down slowly. "No, we're not." Eleanor crossed her arms and squinted her eyes at Dautan. "Oh well, that's too bad." Dautan took out his famous axe from the inside of his jacket, the bit covered with Gabe's dried blood. "I would thought this'd taught you something. I guess not." Dautan nodded his head towards Eleanor and two men behind him ran towards Eleanor and grabbed her. "Hey get the fuck off of her!" Javi grabbed one of the men's hands and ripped them off Eleanor's shoulder. Javi swung his fist at the man and connected with his jaw.

Everyone's heart jumped up in surprise as the gray wolf to Dautan's right opened its mouth and howled its heart out. The coywolves that separated from the Brotherhood chimed in with their own howls as they began to run back towards the entrance of Richmond. Distracted, Javi continued to stare at the gray wolf and the man he punched got his revenge as he swung his fist and punched Javi's cheek. Javi fell to the floor and the man stomped on his stomach and aimed his assault rifle at Javi's head.

Javi stared to his left as the coywolves all returned and stood in front of his eyes. "So Kate, do you want my men to grab you too because I'm sure they would love to." Dautan ran his eyes around Kate's body. "I'm sure they would." Dautan grinned as he scratched his beard with his left hand.

"No." Kate shook her head and kneeled down next to Javi to check out his head. "Bring Eleanor over here." The other man that originally grabbed Eleanor pulled her towards Dautan and pushed her to the ground. "It seems you don't understand what giving your shit to me means." Dautan put his boot on Eleanor's back and made her lay on the ground face first as he put the bit of his axe gently on the back of Elenor's neck and pressed it down slightly. "Maybe this will teach you a lesson." Dautan raised the axe slowly as Javi and Kate watched in horror. "No!" Javi tried to get up but the man's boot pressed down even harder. "Eleanor!" Kate tried to get closer but a man stood in her way with an assault rifle pointed at her stomach. Dautan sighed as he stopped raising his axe into the air. "Tell Tripp I said hey."

"No stop!" Dautan lowered the axe down and nearly chopped Eleanor's neck off as he stopped just above it. "What Eleanor, have something you want to tell me?"

"I... I'm sorry. We'll give you what you want. Just please stop." Eleanor choked on her words as tears ran down her face which was against the ground. Dautan put his axe back into his jacket and zipped it closed. "Now that's what I'm talking about. Finally, someone gets it!" Dautan grinned as he stared at the woman that begged for mercy. "Get her up." Dautan removed his boot from Eleanor's back and the two men in front of Kate and Javi went towards Eleanor and pulled her up as a groan escaped her mouth as they pulled her up with great force.

"I'm glad you've decided to agree to our demands. But now that this place is mine, I mean ours…" Dautan raised his hands slightly in the air as the Brotherhood members behind him nodded. "We need someone to give us a tour!" Dautan stared at Javi who began to get up after he was brought to the floor by one of Dautan's men. "Oh don't worry Javi, you won't have to give me the tour. I've got someone else in mind."

"Oh really, who?" Dautan smiled as he wanted those same words to come out of Javi's mouth. "Oh, Javi I am so glad you asked." Dautan turned away from everyone and faced the Brotherhood members as they all backed away and gave him a clear path. In front of Dautan now was a white van with tinted black windows. The backdoors of the van and it's rear bumper faced everyone as Dautan stood next to the right door. "Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you too…" Dautan grabbed the door handle while another man grabbed the other. Dautan nodded and both opened the doors to reveal who was inside the van.

Anger filed Javi's body as he stared at the person who stepped out of the van. A man stepped out of the van with a brown unzipped jacket with a navy blue shirt underneath. The man pulled down lightly on his grey beanie and pulled down on his jacket as he grinned at the place he'd been before. "Max." Max turned his attention towards Javi who called his name. "Javi, how you been?" Dautan grinned and scratched his chin as he stared at the drama that played before him. "I should've fucking killed you." Max chuckled as he continued to stare at Javi.

Another person walked out of the doors of the van and revealed themselves. "Hello, Javi." Max stepped away to show who it was but Javi already knew by their voice. "Joan." The woman's black and white hair turned as she faced the man that spoke her name. "Javi, it's so good to see you. How have you been?"

"Never better." Joan grinned as Dautan went up to stand next to her. "Oh, this is great. So… now that we've introduced ourselves… Joan, would you mind showing me around this fine place." Joan nodded as she continued to stare at Javi. "Oh, it would be my pleasure."Dautan raised his hand towards Richmond and Joan began to walk towards the entrance to begin the tour as Dautan, Max, the Brotherhood, and the gray wolf followed. Javi, Kate, and Eleanor also followed them but against their will.

* * *

Clementine groaned as she slowly got out of the medical bed. Clementine shivered as her feet touched the cold white tiled floor. A groan escaped Clementine's mouth as she let go of the bed and stood on her own two feet.

 _When will all of this go away? When will this fucking pain go away? Will I ever be… the same?_

Clementine put both of her arms out and stared at their scars. The coywolf's bite clearly had the dog bite beat, both by length and by pain. "Fuck me." Clementine shook her head as she took her gaze away from her arms and stared at the blinds that covered the window.

 _I might be able to see Dautan from the window…_

Clementine slowly placed her feet in front of her one by one as she walked through the cold, dark, and alcoholic scented room. But Clementine stopped dead in her tracks as a pair of glowing amber eyes appeared in front of her. "No please get away!" Clementine backed up against the bed and groaned as a sharp pain overcame her right shoulder. The glowing eyes continued to get closer and closer until the metal door to Clementine's right swung open.

"Clementine! Is everything alright?" Dr. Lingard ran into the room and kneeled in front of Clementine. Clementine shook her head quickly as she stared past Dr. Lingard's face. Dr. Lingard turned around to face what Clementine stared at but only stared at nothing. "Clementine what did you see?" Dr. Lingard turned around to face Clementine who's eyes were widened with fear. "What did you see?"

"I… I saw eyes. Big glowing eyes!" Dr. Lingard sighed as he lowered his head. "I was afraid this would happen." Dr. Lingard walked away from Clementine and went towards a black countertop. "What would happen?" Dr. Lingard picked up his brown clipboard and blue pen and pulled up his low swivel chair towards Clementine. "The wolves. They've caused you so much pain that they have stuck with you. They've traumatized you. Now you see them when they're not even in front of you." Dr. Lingard sat down on the swivel chair as Clementine restarted her walk towards the window. "Hey Clementine, what are you doing out of your bed? You need to rest and recover."

"I'm fine." Dr. Lingard chuckled at that. "Really?" Clementine nodded as she stopped next to the window. "Okay fine, I'm not. But I don't need to rest. I don't want to." Dr. Lingard eyed the girl that stared at the blinds of the window. "Why not?" Clementine sighed as she continued to stare at the blinds. "Every single time I go to sleep, every single time I just close my eyes, the wolves are always there. Every goddamn time." Clementine pulled down on the blinds and stared out the window.

"Well, I don't really know what to say about that. I guess just try not to think about them." Clementine chuckled at that. "I wish I could. But these wounds remind me of them every minute." Dr. Lingard sighed as he wrote things down on his clipboard. "Yeah, I can imagine." Clementine's heart dropped into her stomach and shattered into a million pieces as she stared outside. "What…. What is he doing here?" Dr. Lingard took his attention away from his clipboard and stared at the girl at the window. "They already told you Dautan was here."

"No no not him, Max! He's here!" Dr. Lingard quickly stood from his swivel chair and ran towards the window. "What?" Clementine pulled down the blinds, even more, to let Dr. Lingard take a look. He stared out from between the blinds and stared at the person who used to work for Richmond. But now he seemed to be working for the Brotherhood. "What the hell? Why is he standing there with the Brotherhood?"

"Holy shit! It's fucking Joan!" Dr. Lingard stared behind Max and sure enough, Joan walked out of a white van and stood the same way as Max did as they grinned at Javi, Kate, and Eleanor. "Traitors! They're traitors! How could they do this?!"

"What do you mean? They both hate me and you and all the others down there. I'm not surprised."

"No that's not the problem. They're traitors for a different reason." Dr. Lingard walked away from the window and sat back in his black swivel chair. "What do you mean a different reason?" Clementine let go of the blinds and they fell back to their regular position. Dust flew from the dirty blinds and spread throughout the air. Dr. Lingard put both of his hands on top of his face and sighed. "Dr. Lingard?"

Dr. Lingard kept his hands on his face and didn't Clementine. "There's something that we were told to never speak of again. They told us it would only reopen our wounds. But now that Max and Joan are working with the Brotherhood, I guess now that doesn't matter. anymore."

"What happened?" Dr. Lingard sighed as he removed his hands from his face. His eyes were watery and had a shade of red to them now. "I think you need to take a seat before I tell you, Clementine. It's…it's a lot."

* * *

"Hey, Joan, what the hell is this?" Dautan stared at a massive wall that was covered with many photos of people. "Well, we actually didn't even have this before we left. Did you do this Javi?" Joan and Dautan both stared at Javi who squinted at them with a look of anger. "Yeah." Javi crossed his arms as he continued to stare at them both. "Wow, so these are the people that died huh? You just hung their picture up on the wall?"

"Yeah, we did." Dautan took his gaze away from Javi and stared at the many photos on the wall. Each photo represented a person with a fate they didn't expect. Killed by either a walker or by a bullet. Each person just a victim in the cold world they all lived in now. "Now I must say Javi, you are slacking. Where the hell is Gabe's photo?" Anger filled Javi all the way from his feet to the top of his head. Javi wanted to punch Dautan right in the jaw. That would definitely hurt but compared to what Javi had in mind, that was probably the least painful thing he could do to Dautan.

"We..haven't had the time to put it up yet." Kate softly spoke up. Kate grabbed onto Javi's hands as the sharpness and tension built up in them. "Don't Javi, he'll leave soon." The gray wolf quickly stared at Javi as it sensed the anger that built up inside of him. It's golden brown eyes expanded as well as its jet-black pupils. The gray wolf raised its pointed ears and released its claws, ready for anything that happened.

"Hey, Javi.." Dautan stared at the wall of photos as he waved for Javi to go towards him. Javi didn't and instead, stood in his place. "Hey, the boss gave you an order!" Max raised his voice as members of the Brotherhood raised their guns up. The gray wolf also joined in and walked towards Javi, standing a little further ahead than Max. "Come on Javi, don't make this any harder than it has to be." Joan chimed in. Javi had no choice and gave up. The gray wolf and the rest of the people behind it made way for Javi to walk towards Dautan.

Javi purposely took his sweet time in getting to Dautan as he didn't want to talk to him. Javi was sure that whatever Dautan would tell him next would be enough to bring him to his breaking point. The gray wolf turned its head towards Javi as he passed it. While Javi really took his time, eventually, that slow walk ended and he stood next to the man he wanted to not only punch but to kill as well.

"Hey Javi, that's your brother right?" Dautan with his glove-covered right hand, pointed at a picture of a man with a white shirt, happily cooking something on a barbeque outside. Javi was actually surprised by that. Javi expected Dautan to bring up some shit that would release his anger. But he actually didn't. And for some crazy reason, it seemed Dautan actually cared about Javi for once. "Uhh yeah, it is." Dautan slightly nodded his head as he continued to stare at the picture. "I thought it was. Just wanted to make sure."

"Make sure of what?" Javi raised his eyebrow at that last word as Dautan reached for the photo. "Hey what are you doing?" Dautan pulled the photo down and stared at it. He raised his head up and down as he compared the man in the picture with the person in front of him. "Oh don't worry about it Javi. Jesus." Dautan chuckled as Javi fumed in front of him. "Put it back Dautan."

Dautan's mouth slightly dropped in disbelief. "Did you just order me to do something?" Javi didn't answer him and instead, crossed his arms. Dautan shook his head as he chuckled once again. "I must've been deaf because I could've sworn that you just gave me an order." The whole room fell silent as Dautan and Javi stared at each other. The anger in Javi increased and if he wasn't careful, that anger would be too much for him to even contain.

"Better be careful what you do next Javi, or else you'll be the next one on that wall." Dautan, with David's picture in his hand, pointed towards the wall of photos. In a sharp and quick move, Dautan grabbed the photo of David with both of his hands and with his right hand, quickly moved the photo downward. The photo ripped in half and glided gently towards the floor. Everyone remained silent and no-one dared to speak a word.

Dautan spread his arms out and stared at Javi as was ready for what would happen next. Javi quickly ran towards Dautan and swung at his face. Dautan quickly ducked to dodge the attack and then went behind Javi. Javi quickly turned around but to only open up his stomach for Dautan's fist. Dautan without hesitation swung as hard as he could towards Javi's stomach. Javi jumped back slightly as Dautan's fist made contact with his stomach. In pain, Javi managed to swing again with his left fist this time. The swing connected and his fist hit Dautan's jaw. Surprised, Dautan ran his right hand over the area where he got hit. Members of the Brotherhood quickly grabbed Javi and pushed him to the ground. Each of them took turns kicking Javi all over his body without hesitation. They were all over his body, just like all the wolves were over Gabe's body when Dautan axed his head. "Get everyone outta here now!"Dautan pointed towards the exit as he continued to stare at Javi. "Drag that mother fucker out and put him in a place where everyone can see him!"

* * *

"Holy shit! So you're saying that Dautan fucking did that?" Dr. Lingard slowly nodded his head in response. "He's… He might seem like a lot to handle now but trust me. When you get on his bad side, he transforms into something different. When that happens, he's not even human. He turns into the devil."

"Yeah, I can tell. I'm sorry Dr. Lingard. I can't even imagine what that must've been like." Dr. Lingard wiped his face with his hands as he stared at the floor. The room fell silent as a cold chill went down her spine as a slight gust of wind touched her right shoulder.

Outside of the room, the people outside screamed and yelled all of a sudden. "What the hell is going on out there?" Clementine stared at the blind-covered window as gunshots blared and echoed. "Holy shit!" Clementine slowly walked towards the window. Not only because it pained her to walk any faster, but because she was afraid of what horrific scene was hidden from her by the blinds. Dr. Lingard, however, remained where he sat. Clementine slowly lowered the blinds and gasped as the scene that played out on the Richmond streets was revealed to her. A massive crowd of people, both of Richmond and of the Brotherhood, stood in front of the stage where David was almost hung by Joan and the New Frontier. But now the orange and red sky along with the setting sun and orange outlined clouds were witness to another show on the stage.

This time, it was Javi on the stage, kneeled against the oak wood floor of the stage by the man that stood behind him. Javi's white and blue baseball jersey was now covered with dirt, grass blood, and his own blood. A blood trail escaped Javi's nose and ran down past his wrinkled lips. Javi's hands were tied back by a pair of handcuffs to restrain him. Dautan stood behind the injured man with a pistol in his hand. Dautan yelled at the people watching and the Brotherhood yelled in response as the people of Richmond just watched with their eyes widened. The gray wolf also stood on the stage, but not near Dautan. It, in fact, stood at the other end of the stage, perfectly still. It stared across Richmond, ready for anyone that challenged its leader. But without warning, the gray wolf quickly turned its head in the opposite direction it was facing. But it wasn't that there were people going against Dautan, it was that the coywolves all returned in a pack towards the crowd. The coywolves didn't go on the stage and instead, circled around the crowd, also ready to take down anyone and anything.

"Dautan's gonna kill Javi!" Dr. Lingard slowly raised his head as he stared at the little girl that peered through the blinds. "I knew he was going to kill someone today. I just knew as soon as I saw him." Clementine slowly turned away from the window and stared at Dr. Lingard, who now stared at her. "He hasn't killed Javi yet. This could be our chance to kill Dautan and end all of this!"

"You're crazy! You can't do that, you'll cause a war down there!" Dr. Lingard stood up from his swivel chair and pushed it away from him. "No, I'm not crazy. We have to do this now. If we don't, he'll kill all of us. You were there when Dautan turned into the devil but I'm not sticking around when that happens."

"But it has to be nearly impossible to get to him." Dr. Lingard walked to the window and pulled down the blinds and sure enough, there were many people who protected Dautan. "Yeah see? The wolves are walking around and there has to be at least fifty Brotherhood guys going around, maybe even more if Dautan ordered them to patrol around. It's impossible for you to get a clear shot without getting killed."

"Yeah… Unless I had a sniper rifle…" Clementine walked away from the window and went towards a massive cabinet that stood behind the chair with her red tailcoat blazer shrug. Less than a day after the madness that happened at Richmond, Javi ordered for all the buildings to have guns in case of an emergency. Now was definitely an emergency if Clementine had ever seen one.

Clementine grabbed onto the handles and shivered as she wrapped her cold hands on the even colder metal handle. Clementine pulled the handle and regretted her decision instantly. The pain went all the way from her right hand to her right shoulder. "Fuck!" Clementine grabbed onto her right shoulder with her left hand and rubbed gently on the area to calm the pain down, but to no avail. "Dr. Lingard, can you get this door open please?" Dr. Lingard didn't answer her and Clementine raised her head to face him. "Clementine don't do this. Think about all the consequences."

"But they're gonna kill Javi!" Dr. Lingard shook his head at Javi's name. "It's a terrible thing I know, but it's either one death or multiple. The way you're choosing is gonna get us all killed."

"We have to do this Dr. Lingard! He's right there out in the open. This is the only choice we have and our only chance to take him down. So open this door!" Dr. Lingard shook his head and walked towards the metal door on the other side of the room. He stared at the metal door handle and then turned around to face Clementine. "I know that you want to take him down, we all do. But now isn't the time. If you want to get AJ back, you need to do the right thing. I don't want to stick around and see you make the wrong decision. Do what's right. What thing is right, that's for you to decide. But for me, it's to let Dautan live for now."

Dr. Lingard with that, pushed down on the door handle and pulled on it to open the metal door. Dr. Lingard stopped before he left the room and faced Clementine one last time. "Make the right decision Clementine." Dr. Lingard went out of the room and let the door close itself. Clementine stood still and didn't say a word as she contemplated what Dr. Lingard told her. Clementine suddenly turned around and slammed her left hand on the metal door of the cabinet that used to be behind her. "Fuck!" Clementine put her forehead on the cold metal door of the cabinet and stared down at the floor.

 _What the hell am I doing? Javi is going to die and I'm just standing here doing nothing. Screw Dr. Lingard, I have to save him._

Clementine grabbed onto the door handles once again and took a deep breath in through her nose and out her mouth.

 _Okay on three...One...Two...Three!_

Clementine yelled as she pulled the door handles with all her might. The doors opened but at the cost of more pain to her right shoulder. Clementine winced and groaned at the pain in her arm as she put her left hand on her wound. But if it meant that Javi would be safe, the pain was worth it. Clementine stared at the massive array of pistols, AK-47's, and ammo for them. But at the bottom of the cabinet was what she sought for. "Bingo." Clementine took her left hand away from her wound and grabbed the back end of the sniper rifle.

 _I never used one of these before, but it should be pretty easy right? Just aim and...pull the trigger._

Clementine examined the weapon she had never used before and butterflies flew around in her stomach. Clementine probably would've given up but because of the mention of AJ, Clementine had the strength to push on. Clementine now had both of her hands on the sniper rifle and walked towards the blind-covered window. Once Clementine got to the window she placed the weapon on the medical bed and pushed the blinds up so they weren't in her way any longer. Clementine pushed the window up so that she would be able to take a shot. But to Clementine's dismay, the window didn't budge. "What now?"

Clementine searched around the window until she came across two window locks. Clementine quickly pulled up both of them and pushed on the window again. The window quickly rose and disappeared from sight. Clementine walked towards the sniper rifle but stopped to stare at it.

 _What if miss this up? What if Dr. Lingards right? What if because of me, tons of people die?_

Suddenly, the metal door across the medical bed opened up. "Put your hands up!" A man came into the room with their assault rifle pointed at Clementine.

 _Fuck me._

After the man entered the room, Dautan's gray wolf followed the man and also entered. "I said put your hands up!" The man slowly walked towards Clementine with his finger on the trigger. "Come on Clementine, be a good little girl and listen to the man. Clementine knew that annoying voice like the back of her hand. It was the man that Dr. Lingard had called a traitor. The man that Javi almost killed. The man that Clementine now wanted to kill.

Max.


End file.
